1.
Hanging scroll
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A hanging scroll is one of the many traditional ways to display and exhibit East Asian painting and calligraphy. Hanging scrolls are generally intended to be displayed for periods of time and are then rolled up to be tied and secured for storage. The hanging scrolls are rotated according to season or occasion, the painting surface of the paper or silk can be mounted with decorative brocade silk borders. In the composition of a scroll, the foreground is usually at the bottom of the scroll while the middle and far distances are at the middle. The traditional craft involved in creating a hanging scroll is considered an art in itself, mountings for East Asian paintings can be divided into a few types, such as handscrolls, hanging scrolls, album leaves, and screens amongst others. In the hanging scroll the actual painting is mounted on paper, and provided at the top with a stave, to which is attached a hanging cord, in China, scrolls originated in their earliest form from literature and other texts written on bamboo strips and silk banners. The earliest hanging scrolls are related to and developed from silk banners in early Chinese history and these banners were long and hung vertically on walls. Such silk banners and hanging scroll paintings were found at Mawangdui dating back to the Han Dynasty, by the time of the Tang Dynasty, the aesthetic and structural objectives for hanging scrolls were summarized, which are still followed to this day. During the early Song Dynasty, the scrolls became well suited to the art styles of the artists, consequently hanging scrolls were made in different sizes. The hanging scroll provides an artist with a format to display his art on a wall. It is one of the most common types of scrolls for East Asian painting, horizontal hanging scrolls are also very frequently used and a common form. The hanging scroll is different from the handscroll in that the latter is not hung, the handscroll is a long narrow scroll for displaying a series of scenes in Chinese painting. Thin strip paintings Narrow strip paintings intended for rooms and spaces. Hall paintings Hall paintings are intended to be the centerpiece in the main hall and its usually quite a large hanging scroll that serves as a focal point in an interior and often has a complicated subject. Four hanging scrolls These hanging scrolls were developed from screen paintings and it features several narrow and long hanging scrolls and is usually hung next to each other on a wall, but can also be hung on its own. The subjects have related themes, such as the flowers of the four seasons, the Four Gentlemen, panoramic screen The panoramic screen consists of several hanging scrolls that have continuous images, in which part of subject continues further in another scroll. These hanging scrolls cover large areas of a wall and usually do not have a border in between, couplet A couplet is two hanging scrolls placed side by side or accompanying a scroll in the middle. These are with poetic calligraphy in vertical writing and this style came to popularity during the Ming Dynasty
2.
Ma Lin (painter)
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Ma Lin was a Chinese court painter during the Song Dynasty active during the early to mid 13th century. He was the son of the famous Chinese painter Ma Yuan, one of his best known paintings is Night Outing with Candles, which depicts a gentleman sitting in the doorway of a pavilion, facing four pairs of tall candles amongst flowering crab apple trees. It illustrates a poem by the famous Su Shih, My fear is that in the depths of night, a full moon in the sky overhead confirms its nighttime setting. Three thousand years of Chinese painting, ISBN 0-300-07013-6 Sung and Yuan paintings, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on Ma Lin
3.
Loquat
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The loquat is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae, a native to the cooler hill regions of China to south-central China. Eriobotrya japonica was formerly thought to be related to the genus Mespilus. It is also known as Japanese plum and Chinese plum, also known as pipa in China, Eriobotrya japonica is a large evergreen shrub or small tree, with a rounded crown, short trunk and woolly new twigs. The tree can grow to 5–10 metres tall, but is often smaller, loquats are unusual among fruit trees in that the flowers appear in the autumn or early winter, and the fruits are ripe at any time from early spring to early summer. The flowers are 2 cm in diameter, white, with five petals, the flowers have a sweet, heady aroma that can be smelled from a distance. Loquat fruits, growing in clusters, are oval, rounded or pear-shaped, 3–5 centimetres long, with a smooth or downy, yellow or orange, the succulent, tangy flesh is white, yellow or orange and sweet to subacid or acid, depending on the cultivar. Each fruit contains one to ten ovules, with three to five being most common. A variable number of the ovules mature into large brown seeds, the skin, though thin, can be peeled off manually if the fruit is ripe. In Egypt, varieties with sweeter fruits and fewer seeds are often grafted on inferior quality specimens, the fruits are the sweetest when soft and orange. The flavour is a mixture of peach, citrus and mild mango, the loquat is originally from China where related species can be found growing in the wild. It was introduced into Japan and became naturalised there in early times. Chinese immigrants are presumed to have carried the loquat to Hawaii, the loquat was often mentioned in ancient Chinese literature, such as the poems of Li Bai. In Portuguese literature, it is mentioned since before the Age of Discovery, over 800 loquat cultivars exist in Asia. Self-fertile variants include the Gold Nugget and Mogi cultivars, the boldly textured foliage adds a tropical look to gardens, contrasting well with many other plants. It is popular in the American South, there are many named cultivars, with orange or white flesh. Japan is the producer of loquats followed by Israel and then Brazil. In Europe, Spain is the producer of loquat. In temperate climates it is grown as an ornamental with winter protection, in the United Kingdom, it has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit
4.
Song dynasty
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The Song dynasty was an era of Chinese history that began in 960 and continued until 1279. It succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, coincided with the Liao and Western Xia dynasties and it was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or true paper money nationally and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy. This dynasty also saw the first known use of gunpowder, as well as the first discernment of true north using a compass, the Song dynasty is divided into two distinct periods, Northern and Southern. During the Northern Song, the Song capital was in the city of Bianjing. The Southern Song refers to the period after the Song lost control of its half to the Jurchen Jin dynasty in the Jin–Song Wars. During this time, the Song court retreated south of the Yangtze, the Southern Song dynasty considerably bolstered its naval strength to defend its waters and land borders and to conduct maritime missions abroad. To repel the Jin, and later the Mongols, the Song developed revolutionary new military technology augmented by the use of gunpowder, in 1234, the Jin dynasty was conquered by the Mongols, who took control of northern China, maintaining uneasy relations with the Southern Song. Möngke Khan, the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire and his younger brother Kublai Khan was proclaimed the new Great Khan, though his claim was only partially recognized by the Mongols in the west. In 1271, Kublai Khan was proclaimed the Emperor of China, after two decades of sporadic warfare, Kublai Khans armies conquered the Song dynasty in 1279. The Mongol invasion led to a reunification under the Yuan dynasty, the population of China doubled in size during the 10th and 11th centuries. The Northern Song census recorded a population of roughly 50 million, much like the Han and this data is found in the Standard Histories. However, it is estimated that the Northern Song had a population of some 100 million people and this dramatic increase of population fomented an economic revolution in pre-modern China. The expansion of the population, growth of cities, and the emergence of a national economy led to the withdrawal of the central government from direct involvement in economic affairs. The lower gentry assumed a role in grassroots administration and local affairs. Appointed officials in county and provincial centers relied upon the gentry for their services, sponsorship. Social life during the Song was vibrant, citizens gathered to view and trade precious artworks, the populace intermingled at public festivals and private clubs, and cities had lively entertainment quarters. The spread of literature and knowledge was enhanced by the expansion of woodblock printing. Technology, science, philosophy, mathematics, and engineering flourished over the course of the Song, although the institution of the civil service examinations had existed since the Sui dynasty, it became much more prominent in the Song period
5.
Landed gentry in China
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The term landed gentry, or gentry, originally used for Britain, does not correspond to any single term in Chinese. One standard work remarks that under the Ming dynasty, the elite who held privileged status through passing the Imperial exams were called shenshi 紳士 or jinshen 縉紳 and these degree-holders, literati, scholar-bureaucrats or officials, are loosely known in English as the Chinese gentry. Through education this elite held a monopoly on office holding. After the Tang dynasty, the Song Dynasty developed the civil service exam to replace the system which favored nobles. Under the Song dynasty, their power and influence eclipsed that of the hereditary and they are also called, 士紳 shishen scholar gentry or 、鄉紳 xiangshen local gentry. Attempts have been made to them as a social class who had passed the examinations and so were eligible to hold office, as well as retired mandarins or their families. Owning land was often their way of preserving wealth, under the Confucian class system the scholar-official was at the top with farmers, artisans, and merchants below them in descending order. Since the next highest class was agricultural, scholar-officials retired to landed estates and they did not work the land themselves but hired peasants as tenant farmers. In this period of Chinese history, peasants were actually of a higher class than the merchants, the sons of these mandarins aspired to pass the imperial exams and continue the family legacy. Members of the gentry were expected to be an example to their community as Confucian gentlemen, by late imperial China, sons of merchants used their money to buy an education and enter the civil service. Also, financially desperate gentry married into merchant families which led to a breakdown of the old class structure, with the abolition of the exam system and the overthrow of the Qing dynasty came the end of the scholar-bureaucrat as a legal group. After the New Culture Movement, radicals used the term to land owners as feudal. The communists were able to much of the village population through their promises of agrarian reform. After the Peoples Republic of China was established, many landlords were executed by class struggle trials, former members were stigmatized and faced persecution which reached its heights during the Cultural Revolution. This persecution ended with the advent of Chinese economic reform under Deng Xiaoping, Chinese nobility Society and culture of the Han Dynasty Elman, Benjamin A. Civil Service Examinations, Berkeshire Encyclopedia of China, Great Barrington, MA, Berkshire, pp. 405–410
6.
Scholar-official
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After the Sui dynasty these officials mostly came from the scholar-gentry who had earned academic degrees by passing the imperial examinations. The scholar-officials were schooled in calligraphy and Confucian texts and they dominated the government and local life of China until the middle of the 20th century. Historian Charles Moore concludes that, Generally speaking, the record of these scholar-gentlemen has been a worthy one and it was good enough to be praised and imitated in 18th century Europe. Nevertheless, it has given China a tremendous handicap in their transition from government by men to government by law, since only a few could become court or local officials, the majority of the scholar-gentry stayed in villages or cities as social leaders. As a class, these claimed to represent morality and virtue. Four arts Junzi Yangban Kuge Bildungsbürgertum Elman, Benjamin A, civil Service Examinations, Berkshire Encyclopedia of China, Great Barrington, MA, Berkshire, pp. 405–410 Esherick, Joseph and Mary Backus Rankin. Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance, max Weber, The Religion of China, Confucianism and Taoism Jerry Bentley and Herb Ziegler. Traditions and Encounters - A Global Perspective on the Past, the Chinese Gentry, Studies on Their Role in Nineteenth-Century Chinese Society
7.
Han dynasty
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The Han dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms period. Spanning over four centuries, the Han period is considered an age in Chinese history. To this day, Chinas majority ethnic group refers to itself as the Han people and it was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han, and briefly interrupted by the Xin dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang. This interregnum separates the Han dynasty into two periods, the Western Han or Former Han and the Eastern Han or Later Han, the emperor was at the pinnacle of Han society. He presided over the Han government but shared power with both the nobility and appointed ministers who came largely from the gentry class. The Han Empire was divided into areas controlled by the central government using an innovation inherited from the Qin known as commanderies. These kingdoms gradually lost all vestiges of their independence, particularly following the Rebellion of the Seven States, from the reign of Emperor Wu onward, the Chinese court officially sponsored Confucianism in education and court politics, synthesized with the cosmology of later scholars such as Dong Zhongshu. This policy endured until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 AD, the Han dynasty was an age of economic prosperity and saw a significant growth of the money economy first established during the Zhou dynasty. The coinage issued by the government mint in 119 BC remained the standard coinage of China until the Tang dynasty. The period saw a number of limited institutional innovations, the Xiongnu, a nomadic steppe confederation, defeated the Han in 200 BC and forced the Han to submit as a de facto inferior partner, but continued their raids on the Han borders. Emperor Wu of Han launched several campaigns against them. The ultimate Han victory in these wars eventually forced the Xiongnu to accept vassal status as Han tributaries, the territories north of Hans borders were quickly overrun by the nomadic Xianbei confederation. Imperial authority was seriously challenged by large Daoist religious societies which instigated the Yellow Turban Rebellion. When Cao Pi, King of Wei, usurped the throne from Emperor Xian, following Liu Bangs victory in the Chu–Han Contention, the resulting Han dynasty was named after the Hanzhong fief. Chinas first imperial dynasty was the Qin dynasty, the Qin unified the Chinese Warring States by conquest, but their empire became unstable after the death of the first emperor Qin Shi Huangdi. Within four years, the authority had collapsed in the face of rebellion. Although Xiang Yu proved to be a commander, Liu Bang defeated him at Battle of Gaixia. Liu Bang assumed the title emperor at the urging of his followers and is known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu, Changan was chosen as the new capital of the reunified empire under Han
8.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is the fourth largest museum in the United States. It contains more than 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas, with more than one million visitors a year, it is the 55th most-visited art museum in the world as of 2014. Founded in 1870, the moved to its current location in 1909. The museum is affiliated with the Tufts School of the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Fine Arts was founded in 1870 and opened in 1876, with most of its initial collection taken from the Boston Athenæum Art Gallery. Francis Davis Millet, a local artist, was instrumental in starting the Art School affiliated with the museum and it was built almost entirely of red brick and terracotta with a small amount of stone in its base. The brick was produced by the Peerless Brick Company of Philadelphia, in 1907, plans were laid to build a new home for the museum on Huntington Avenue in Bostons Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood near the renowned Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Museum trustees decided to hire architect Guy Lowell to create a design for a museum so that could be built in stages as funding was obtained for each phase, two years later, the first section of Lowell’s neoclassical design was completed. It featured a 500-foot façade of granite and a grand rotunda, the museum moved to its new location later that year, the Copley Square Hotel eventually would replace the old building. The second phase of construction built a wing along the The Fens to house paintings galleries and it was funded entirely by Maria Antoinette Evans Hunt, the wife of wealthy business magnate Robert Dawson Evans, and opened in 1915. From 1916 through 1925, the noted artist John Singer Sargent painted the frescoes that adorn the rotunda, numerous additions enlarged the building throughout the years, including the Decorative Arts wing in 1928 and the Norma Jean Calderwood Garden Court and Terrace in 1997. The West Wing, designed by I. M. Pei, opened in 1981 and this wing now houses the museums cafe, restaurant, and gift shop as well as a special exhibition space. In the mid-2000s, the museum launched an effort to renovate. In 2011, Moodys Investors Service calculated that the museum had over $180 million in outstanding debt, however, the agency cited growing attendance, a large endowment, and positive cash flow as reasons to believe that the museums finances would become stable in the near future. The renovation included a new Art of the Americas Wing to feature artwork from North, South, in 2006, the groundbreaking ceremonies took place. The landscape architecture firm Gustafson Guthrie Nichol redesigned the Huntington Avenue and Fenway entrances, gardens, access roads, the wing opened on November 20,2010 with free admission to the public. Mayor Thomas Menino declared it Museum of Fine Arts Day, the 12, 000-square-foot glass-enclosed courtyard features a 42. 5-foot high glass sculpture, titled the Lime Green Icicle Tower, by Dale Chihuly. In 2014, the Art of the Americas Wing was recognized for its architectural achievement by being awarded the Harleston Parker Medal. In 2015, the museum renovated its Japanese garden, Tenshin-en, the garden, which originally opened in 1988, was designed by Japanese professor Kinsaku Nakane
9.
Hanfu
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Hanfu is the traditional, historical dress of the Han people. The term Hanfu was originally recorded by the Book of Han, Chinese clothing is influential to Japanese kimono and Korean hanbok. From the beginning of its history, Hanfu was inseparable from silk, supposedly discovered by the Yellow Emperors consort, vivid primary colors and green were used, due to the degree of technology at the time. Such markers included the length of a skirt, the wideness of a sleeve, in addition to these class-oriented developments, Han Chinese clothing became looser, with the introduction of wide sleeves and jade decorations hung from the sash which served to keep the yi closed. The yi was essentially wrapped over, in a known as jiaoling youren, or wrapping the right side over before the left. The style of traditional / historical Han clothing can be summarized as containing garment elements that are arranged in distinctive, one can often tell the profession or social rank of someone by what they wear on their heads. The typical types of male headwear are called jin for soft caps, mao for stiff hats, officials and academics have a separate set of hats, typically the putou, the wushamao, the si-fang pingding jin and the Zhuangzi jin. A typical hairpiece for women is the ji but there are more elaborate hairpieces, in addition, managing hair was also a crucial part of ancient Han peoples daily life. Commonly, males and females would stop cutting their hair once they reached adulthood and this was marked by the Chinese coming of age ceremony Guan Li, usually performed between ages 15 to 20. They allowed their hair to grow long naturally until death, including facial hair, children were exempt from the above commandment, they could cut their hair short, make different kinds of knots or braids, or simply just let them hang without any care. However, once they entered adulthood, every male was obliged to tie his hair into a bun called ji either on or behind his head. Females on the hand, had more choices in terms of decorating their hair as adults. They could still arrange their hair into as various kinds of hairstyles as they pleased, there were different fashions for women in various dynastic periods. Han children and females were spared from this order, also Taoist monks were allowed to keep their hair, Han defectors to the Qing like Li Chengdong and Liu Liangzuo and their Han troops carried out the queue order to force it on the general population. Han-Chinese clothing had changed and evolved with the fashion of the days since its commonly assumed beginnings in the Shang dynasty, many of the earlier designs are more gender-neutral and simple in cuttings. Later garments incorporate multiple pieces with men commonly wearing pants and women wearing skirts. Clothing for women usually accentuates the bodys natural curves through wrapping of upper garment lapels or binding with sashes at the waist, each dynasty has their own styles of Hanfu as they evolved and only few styles are fossilized. Types include tops and bottoms, and one-piece robes that wrap around the body once or several times, note, Daopao doesnt necessarily means Taoists robe, it actually is a style of robe for scholars
10.
Tile
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A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass, generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops. Alternatively, tile can sometimes refer to units made from lightweight materials such as perlite, wood. In another sense, a tile is a tile or similar object. The word is derived from the French word tuile, which is, in turn, from the Latin word tegula, Tiles are often used to form wall and floor coverings, and can range from simple square tiles to complex mosaics. Tiling stone is marble, onyx, granite or slate. Thinner tiles can be used on walls than on floors, which require more durable surfaces that will resist impacts, the earliest evidence of glazed brick is the discovery of glazed bricks in the Elamite Temple at Chogha Zanbil, dated to the 13th century BC. Glazed and colored bricks were used to make low reliefs in Ancient Mesopotamia, most famously the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, now reconstructed in Berlin. Mesopotamian craftsmen were imported for the palaces of the Persian Empire such as Persepolis, tiling was used in the second century by the Sinhalese kings of ancient Sri Lanka, using smoothed and polished stone laid on floors and in swimming pools. Historians consider the techniques and tools for tiling as well advanced, evidenced by the fine workmanship, tiling from this period can be seen Ruwanwelisaya and Kuttam Pokuna in the city of Anuradhapura. The Achaemenid Empire decorated buildings with glazed tiles, including Darius the Greats palace at Susa. The succeeding Sassanid Empire used tiles patterned with geometric designs, flowers, plants, birds and human beings, early Islamic mosaics in Iran consist mainly of geometric decorations in mosques and mausoleums, made of glazed brick. Typical turquoise tiling becomes popular in 10th-11th century and is used mostly for Kufic inscriptions on mosque walls, seyyed Mosque in Isfahan, Dome of Maraqeh and the Jame Mosque of Gonabad are among the finest examples. The dome of Jame Atiq Mosque of Qazvin is also dated to this period, the golden age of Persian tilework began during the reign the Timurid Empire. In the moraq technique, single-color tiles were cut into small geometric pieces, after hardening, these panels were assembled on the walls of buildings. But the mosaic was not limited to flat areas, Tiles were used to cover both the interior and exterior surfaces of domes. Prominent Timurid examples of this include the Jame Mosque of Yazd, Goharshad Mosque, the Madrassa of Khan in Shiraz. Other important tile techniques of time include girih tiles, with their characteristic white girih. Mihrabs, being the points of mosques, were usually the places where most sophisticated tilework was placed
11.
Simplified Chinese characters
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Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
12.
Traditional Chinese characters
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Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
13.
Chinese calligraphy
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Chinese calligraphy is a form of calligraphy widely practiced in China and revered in the Chinese cultural sphere, which often includes Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. There is a standardization of the various styles of calligraphy in this tradition. Chinese calligraphy and ink and wash painting are closely related, since they are accomplished using similar tools, Chinese painting and calligraphy distinguish themselves from other cultural arts because they emphasize motion and are charged with dynamic life. According to Stanley-Baker, Calligraphy is sheer life experienced through energy in motion that is registered as traces on silk or paper, with time, Calligraphy has also led to the development of many forms of art in China, including seal carving, ornate paperweights, and inkstones. In China, calligraphy is referred to as Shūfǎ, literally, the way/method/law of writing, Shodō in Japan, Chinese calligraphy is normally regarded as one of the arts in the countries where it is practised. Chinese calligraphy focuses not only on methods of writing but also on cultivating ones character, Calligraphy is also considered an art where works are appreciated more or only for their aesthetic qualities. Chinese characters can be retraced to 4000 BC signs, in 2003, at the site of Xiaoshuangqiao, about 20 km southeast of the ancient Zhengzhou Shang City, ceramic inscriptions dating to 1435–1412 BC have been found by archaeologists. These writings are made in cinnabar paint, thus, the dates of writing in China have been confirmed for the Middle Shang period. The ceramic ritual vessel vats that bear these cinnabar inscriptions were all unearthed within the area of this site. They were unearthed mostly in the sacrificial pits holding cow skulls and cow horns, the inscriptions are written on the exterior and interior of the rim, and the exterior of the belly of the large type of vats. The characters are mostly written singly, character compounds or sentences are rarely seen, the contemporary Chinese characters set principles were clearly visible in ancient Chinas Jiǎgǔwén characters carved on ox scapulas and tortoise plastrons around 14th - 11th century BCE. Brush-written examples decay over time and have not survived, during the divination ceremony, after the cracks were made, characters were written with a brush on the shell or bone to be later carved. With the development of Jīnwén and Dàzhuàn cursive signs continued, moreover, each archaic kingdom of current China had its own set of characters. In Imperial China, the graphs on old steles — some dating from 200 BC, despite the fact that the main writing implement of the time was already the brush, little paper survives from this period, and the main examples of this style are on steles. The Lìshū style which is more regularized, and in ways similar to modern text, were also authorised under Qin Shi Huang. Kǎishū style — still in use today — and attributed to Wang Xizhi and its spread was encouraged by Emperor Mingzong of Later Tang, who ordered the printing of the classics using new wooden blocks in Kaishu. Printing technologies here allowed shapes to stabilize, the Kaishu shape of characters 1000 years ago was mostly similar to that at the end of Imperial China. But small changes have made, for example in the shape of 广 which is not absolutely the same in the Kangxi Dictionary of 1716 as in modern books
14.
Ink wash painting
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Ink wash painting, also known as literati painting, is an East Asian type of brush painting of Chinese origin that uses black ink—the same as used in East Asian calligraphy, in various concentrations. For centuries, this most prestigious form of Chinese art was practiced by highly educated scholar gentlemen or literati, names used in the cultures concerned include, in Chinese shuǐ mò huà, in Japanese sumi-e or suibokuga, in Korean sumukhwa, and in Vietnamese tranh thủy mặc. Textual evidence suggests that Shan shui style painting existed during Chinas Liu Song dynasty of the fifth century, ink wash painting developed further during the Tang dynasty. The 8th-century poet/painter Wang Wei is generally credited as the painter who applied color to existing ink wash paintings, the art was further developed into a more polished style during the Song Dynasty. It was introduced to Korea shortly after Chinas discovery of the ink, Asian aesthetic writing is generally consistent in stating the goal of ink and wash painting is not simply to reproduce the appearance of the subject, but to capture its spirit. To paint a horse, the ink wash painting artist must understand its temperament better than its muscles and bones, to paint a flower, there is no need to perfectly match its petals and colors, but it is essential to convey its liveliness and fragrance. East Asian ink wash painting may be regarded as a form of art that captures the unseen. In landscape painting the scenes depicted are typically imaginary, or very loose adaptations of actual views, mountain landscapes are by far the most common, often evoking particular areas traditionally famous for their beauty, from which the artist may have been very distant. East Asian ink wash painting has inspired modern artists in the West. In his classic book Composition, American artist and educator Arthur Wesley Dow wrote this about ink wash painting, put upon the paper the fewest possible lines and tones, just enough to cause form, texture and effect to be felt. Every brush-touch must be full-charged with meaning, and useless detail eliminated, put together all the good points in such a method, and you have the qualities of the highest art. Dow strived for harmonic compositions through three elements, line, shading, and color and he advocated practicing with East Asian brushes and ink to develop aesthetic acuity with line and shading. Ink wash painting artists spend years practicing basic brush strokes to refine their brush movement, in the hand of a master, a single stroke can produce astonishing variations in tonality, from deep black to silvery gray. Ink wash painting is usually done on paper or washi both of which are highly absorbent and unsized. Silk is also used in forms of ink painting. Many types of paper and washi do not lend themselves readily to a smooth wash the way watercolor paper does. Each brush stroke is visible, so any wash in the sense of Western style painting requires partially sized paper, paper manufacturers today understand artists demands for more versatile papers and work to produce kinds that are more flexible. In ink wash paintings, as in calligraphy, artists usually grind inkstick over an inkstone to obtain black ink, most inksticks are made of soot from pine or oil combined with animal glue
15.
Handscroll
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The handscroll is a long narrow scroll for displaying a series of scenes in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean painting and calligraphy. The handscroll presents an artwork in the form and can be exceptionally long, usually measuring up to a few meters in length. Handscrolls are generally viewed starting from the right end and this kind of scroll is intended to be viewed flat on a table while admiring it section for section during the unrolling as if traveling through a landscape. In this way, this allows for the depiction of a continuous narrative or journey. Scroll painting is a painting done on a roll of paper that could be rolled up. In Bengal in India local village scroll painters and potters began developing a new style of art. The handscroll originated from ancient Chinese text documents, from the Spring and Autumn period through the Han dynasty, bamboo or wooden slips were bound and used to write texts on. During the Eastern Han period, the use of paper and silk as handscrolls became more common, the handscroll was the one of the main formats for texts up until the Tang dynasty. Since the Three Kingdoms, the became a standard form for mounting artwork. New styles were developed over time, a handscroll has a backing of protective and decorative silk with a small title label on it. The front of a scroll usually consists of a frontispiece at the side, the artwork itself in the middle. The right side of the scroll, to where the frontispiece was located, is known as the heaven, vertical strips are used to separate the different sections. Most handscrolls display only one painting, although several short paintings can also be mounted on the scroll, on the right end of a scroll is a wooden stave, which serves as a support to a scroll. A silk cord and a fastener is attached to the stave, a wooden roller is attached on the left end and forms an axis to help roll up a scroll. Emakimono, a Japanese horizontal picture scroll Digital Scrolling Paintings Project MoreInfo, Formats
16.
Lacquerware
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Lacquerware are objects decoratively covered with lacquer, the treated, dyed and dried sap of Toxicodendron vernicifluum or related trees, applied in several coats to a base that is usually wood. This dries to a hard and smooth surface layer which is durable, waterproof. Lacquer is sometimes painted with pictures, inlaid with shell and other materials, or carved, as well as dusted with gold and given other further decorative treatments. Lacquerware includes small or large containers, tableware, a variety of objects carried by people. Most East Asian countries have traditions of lacquer work, going back several thousand years in the cases of China. True lacquer is not made outside Asia, but some imitations, such as Japanning in Europe, or parallel techniques, various prehistoric lacquerwares have been unearthed in China dating back to the Neolithic period and objects with lacquer coating found in Japan dating to the late Jōmon period. The earliest known object, a red wooden bowl, was unearthed at a Hemudu culture site in Zhejiang. During the Shang dynasty of China, sophisticated lacquer process techniques developed became an artistic craft. During the Eastern Zhou period, lacquerware began appearing in large quantity and this is the earliest era from which notable quantities of lacquerware have survived. By the Han dynasty, special administrations were established to organize, elaborate incised decorations were used in lacquerware during the Han dynasty. In the Tang dynasty, Chinese lacquerware saw a new style marked by the use of sheets of gold or silver made in shapes, such as birds, animals. This was done by a known as pingtuo. Such techniques were time-consuming and costly, but these lacquerware were considered highly refined and it was also the period when the earliest practice of carving lacquerware began. The art of gold, silver, and mother-of-pearl continued from the Tang into the Song dynasty. Several existing decorative techniques gradually developed further after the 10th century, such as qiangjin, diaotian or tianqi, especially the art of inlaying lacquer with mother-of-pearl was intensively developed during the Song dynasty. However, during the Song, the craft also made use of inlaid gold in a process of which is to engrave intricate patterns in the lacquer surface. The knowledge of the Chinese methods of the process spread from China during the Han, Tang and Song dynasties, eventually it was introduced to Korea, Japan, Southeast. One of the earliest Japanese techniques for decorating the lacquer surface was, besides painting simple designs and this technique was transmitted from China during the Tang dynasty
17.
Folding screen
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A folding screen is a type of free-standing furniture. It consists of frames or panels, which are often connected by hinges or by other means. It can be made in a variety of designs and with different kinds of materials, folding screens have many practical and decorative uses. It originated from ancient China, eventually spreading to the rest of East Asia, Europe, screens date back to China during the Eastern Zhou period. These were initially one-panel screens in contrast to folding screens, folding screens were invented during the Han dynasty. Depictions of those folding screens have been found in Han-era tombs, a folding screen was often decorated with beautiful art, major themes included mythology, scenes of palace life, and nature. It is often associated with intrigue and romance in Chinese literature, for example, an example of such a thematic occurrence of the folding screen is in the classical novel Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin. The folding screen was an element in Tang literature. The Tang poet Li He wrote the Song of the Screen, the folding screen surrounded the bed of the young couple, its twelve panels were adorned with butterflies alighted on China pink flowers, and had silver hinges resembling glass coins. Folding screens were made from wooden panels and painted on lacquered surfaces. Even though folding screens were known to have used since antiquity. During the Tang dynasty, folding screens were considered ideal ornaments for many painters to display their paintings, many artists painted on paper or silk and applied it onto the folding screen. There were two distinct artistic folding screens mentioned in literature of the era. One of it was known as the huaping and the other was known as the shuping and it was not uncommon for people to commission folding screens from artists, such as from Tang-era painter Cao Ba or Song-era painter Guo Xi. The landscape paintings on folding screens reached its height during the Song dynasty, folding screens became significant during the period of Unified Silla. Folding screens known as irworobongdo were important elements in the room of some Joseon kings. Like many Japanese arts and crafts, folding screens originated in China, according to the 8th-century work Nihon Shoki, one of the earliest folding screens to reach Japan was during the reign of Emperor Tenmu, which were gifts from the Korean kingdom of Silla. By the 8th century, folding screens became well known in Japan through China during the Tang dynasty, during the late Muromachi period, the Japanese began depicting everyday life on folding screen, which was a custom imported from China
18.
Gongbi
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Gongbi is a careful realist technique in Chinese painting, the opposite of the interpretive and freely expressive xieyi style. The name is from the Chinese gong jin meaning tidy, the gongbi technique uses highly detailed brushstrokes that delimits details very precisely and without independent or expressive variation. It is often colored and usually depicts figural or narrative subjects. The term related to gongbi, jiehua (or boundary painting}, refers to the depiction of architectural forms aided by the ruler. The gongbi style had its beginnings approximately 2000 years ago during the Han Dynasty when Hans political stability and these paintings peaked out between the Tang and Song Dynasties when these refined paintings were endorsed and collected by the royal families of China. To perfect this style the gongbi artists must totally commit themselves to these techniques, only the wealthy could afford such artists. This style of art was accomplished in secret in royal palaces, Gongbi is one of the oldest Chinese painting techniques that feature narratives or high authority figures in them. When using brushes to paint gongbi, there are specific types for contouring and colouring, there are four types of brushes for contouring, Hong Mao, are used to draw thick strokes mainly for landscape and background visuals. Yi Wen is used for lines to paint clothing, for example. Ye Jing brushes are used to contour flowers and bedsheets, xie Zhua is the finest contour brush used to paint strokes of dragonflies and specific detail in the painting. There are three sizes of brushes used to colour the surface of the painting, Da Bai Yun, Zhong Bai Yun, rough drafts are usually drawn on rice paper. If there is only one draft, a type of paper called Xuan paper is used. The soft paper is able to water well, best used for Chinese painting. Silk can also be used, which is sized as well, the practice of Gongbi is specifically on rice paper when sketching out the design and layout of the drawing. Typically, pencil is used before beginning the second draft with the tipped brushes, the variation and detail in strokes are important especially when layering each wash of ink on top of each other. There are upward and downward strokes used that emphasize detailed pictures such as facial features, after hundreds of years, a technique was developed for all gongbi artists as a system. Lines are used first to contour the figure and determine the fine outlines of the painting, modest colors are added to the painting that add onto a sense of nature, flamboyant colors are used when the content of the painting has accentuated lines. Listed chronologically, Yan Liben Zhang Xuan Zhou Fang Gu Hongzhong Emperor Huizong of Song Tang Yin Qiu Ying Chen Hongshou
19.
Four arts
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The four arts, or the four arts of the Chinese scholar, were the four main academic and artistic accomplishments required of the aristocratic ancient Chinese scholar-gentleman caste. They are qin, qi, shu and hua, qín 琴 is the musical instrument of the literati, the gǔqín. Although it exclusively meant this instrument in ancient times, it has now come to all musical instruments. The gǔqín is a zither that owes its invention to the Chinese society of some 3,000 years ago. During the reign of the imperial China, a scholar was expected to play the gǔqín, gǔqín was explored as an art-form as well as a science, and scholars strove to both play it well and to create texts on its manipulation. Gǔqín notation was invented some 1,500 years ago, some books contain musical pieces written and mastered more than 500 years ago. Gǔqín is so influential that it made its way into space. The fact that the gǔqíns name breaks down to gu and qin reveals the great antiquity. Qí 棋 is a game and art form which is now called wéiqí in Chinese. Current definitions of qí cover a range of board games. However, xiangqi is often considered a game of the people. Many theories exist regarding the origin of wéiqí in Chinese history, one of these holds that was an ancient fortune-telling device used by Chinese cosmologists to simulate the universes relationship to an individual. Another suggests that the legendary Emperor Yao invented it to enlighten his son, certainly wéiqí had begun to take hold around the 6th century BCE when Confucius mentioned wéiqí in his Analects 17,22. Wéiqí is a game in two players take turns placing black and white stones on a board consisting of a grid of 19x19 lines. Stones are placed on the intersections of the grid, the two players place stones alternately until they reach a point at which neither player wishes to make another move, the game has no set ending conditions beyond this. At the conclusion of the game, it is scored by counting the territory encircled by each side, games may also be won by resignation. Ancient wéiqí texts are prized among modern Chinese wéiqí professionals, as seen below in the translation of an ancient strategy book and it was published in 1349 by Yan Defu and Yan Tianzhang. The former was a go player and the latter a collector of old go books
20.
Landscape painting
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In other works, landscape backgrounds for figures can still form an important part of the work. Sky is almost always included in the view, and weather is often an element of the composition, detailed landscapes as a distinct subject are not found in all artistic traditions, and develop when there is already a sophisticated tradition of representing other subjects. The two main traditions spring from Western painting and Chinese art, going well over a thousand years in both cases. Landscape views in art may be imaginary, or copied from reality with varying degrees of accuracy. If the primary purpose of a picture is to depict an actual, specific place, especially including buildings prominently, within a few decades it was used to describe vistas in poetry, and eventually as a term for real views. However the cognate term landscaef or landskipe for a patch of land had existed in Old English. The earliest pure landscapes with no figures are frescos from Minoan Greece of around 1500 BCE. The frescos from the Tomb of Nebamun, now in the British Museum, are a famous example. These were frequently used, as in the illustrated, to bridge the gap between a foreground scene with figures and a distant panoramic vista, a persistent problem for landscape artists. The Chinese style generally showed only a distant view, or used dead ground or mist to avoid that difficulty, aesthetic theories in both regions gave the highest status to the works seen to require the most imagination from the artist. They were often also poets whose lines and images illustrated each other, a revival in interest in nature initially mainly manifested itself in depictions of small gardens such as the Hortus Conclusus or those in millefleur tapestries. The frescos of figures at work or play in front of a background of trees in the Palace of the Popes. Several frescos of gardens have survived from Roman houses like the Villa of Livia, a particular advance is shown in the less well-known Turin-Milan Hours, now largely destroyed by fire, whose developments were reflected in Early Netherlandish painting for the rest of the century. Landscape backgrounds for various types of painting became prominent and skilful during the 15th century. The Italian development of a system of graphical perspective was now known all over Europe. Indeed, certain styles were so popular that they became formulas that could be copied again and again, after the publication of the Small Landscapes, landscape artists in the Low Countries either continued with the world landscape or followed the new mode presented by the Small Landscapes. The popularity of landscape scenes can be seen in the success of the painter Frans Post. Salvator Rosa gave picturesque excitement to his landscapes by showing wilder Southern Italian country, there are different styles and periods, and subgenres of marine and animal painting, as well as a distinct style of Italianate landscape
21.
Jing Hao
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Jing Hao was a Chinese landscape painter and theorist of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in Northern China. Later this style would come to be known as the Northern Landscape style, Jing Hao began his artistic career during the later years of the Tang Dynasty. Initially he was influenced by the emphasis on landscapes of Tang painters. Their goal to express the grandeur and harmony of nature was exemplified by the masters such as Wang Wei. An aversion to the turmoil of his era led Jing Hao to retire to seclusion in the northern Taihang Mountains, here he spent the greater portion of his life in the pursuit of artistic development. Taihang is a region of dense cloud forests punctuated by jagged peaks. These unique geographical characteristics made the region particularly suited to Jings developing interest in ink wash techniques, Jing was one of the earliest Chinese artists to employ ink washes to simulate depth and atmospheric perspective. Jing departed from such an approach by employing in his landscapes a mixture of atmospheric ink washes and this technique, called cun fa, would characterize all of his major works as well as those of other artists who would study his work in later years. In his writings, Jing described cun fa as a way of allowing the heart to follow after the brush and he wrote, “The image is to be seized without hesitation, so that the representation does not suffer. If the ink is too rich, it loses its expressive quality, if too weak in tone, it fails to achieve a proper vigour. ”In other words, he sought to allow denser forms to take shape spontaneously out of the ink wash, like rocky crags jutting forth from misty basins. This embrace of spontaneity is readily apparent in his surviving works, despite his influence on the course of Northern Chinese painting, few works produced by Jing Hao have survived to the present day, and those that have are in poor condition. The piece most frequently held as a template of his style is Mount Lu, the work is a tight, vertical composition, employing Jings newly developed cun fa technique to compress the landscape into layers of jutting rock-pillars between chasms of mist. The enclosed space of the composition enhances the monumental characteristics of the mountain, aside from Mount Lu, only one other major surviving work bearing the signature of Jing Hao has survived into the present. Travellers in Snow-Covered Mountains was recovered during the excavation of a tomb, therefore, the attribution of this work to Jing Hao remains a subject of academic dispute. In Bifa Ji, which is written as a narrative, Jing Haos theories on art are presented in a conversation he has with an old man he meets on a road while wandering in the mountains. Jing Hao provides a logical and analytical approach, by first establishing abstract concepts such as thought and rhythm and then proceeding, from those. After describing each of the six essentials in turn, the sage then takes a step which will lay the foundation for the Northern Song school. The search for such a balance between the real and the abstract would form the basis of Chinese art criticism for centuries to come, Jing Haos theories on art provided the foundation for much of what was to come during the later Song Dynasty
22.
Li Cheng (painter)
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Li Cheng, Courtesy name Xiánxī, was a Chinese painter from Qingzhou during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms and early Song Dynasty. His ancestral lineage was with the Tang Dynasty imperial family, the Li family, Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, and Guan Tong together became known as the three great rival artists. He did many paintings with diluted ink, known as treating ink like gold. At that time, he was considered the best landscape painter of all time and he was known to have carried on an artistic dialogue with Wu Daoxuan through their respective paintings. Li Cheng primarily portrayed Shandong area landscapes in his paintings, artists of later generations, such as Guo Xi, modeled their teaching on his painting style and methods. His works include “Jigger, Joy in Fishing, Cold crow, one extant painting, Reading Stele Nest Stone, was a collaboration between him and Wang Xiao. Culture of the Song Dynasty Chinese painting Chinese art History of Chinese art Sullivan, berkeley, University of California Press,2008. Landscapes Clear and Radiant, The Art of Wang Hui, a catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
23.
Fan Kuan
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Fan Kuan was a Chinese landscape painter of the Song Dynasty considered among the great masters of the tenth and eleventh centuries. Travelers among Mountains and Streams, a hanging scroll, is Fan Kuans best known work. It establishes an ideal in monumental landscape painting to which painters were to return time. The classic Chinese perspective of three planes is evident - near, middle, and far, unlike earlier examples of Chinese landscape art, the grandeur of nature is the main theme, rather than merely providing a backdrop. A packhorse train can barely be seen emerging from a wood at the base of a towering precipice, the paintings style encompasses archaic conventions dating back to the Tang Dynasty. The historian Patricia Ebrey explains her view on the painting that the. foreground, presented at eye level, is executed in crisp, well-defined brush strokes. Jutting boulders, tough scrub trees, a train on the road. There is a break between the foreground and the towering central peak behind, which is treated as if it were a backdrop. There are human figures in this scene, but it is easy to imagine them overpowered by the magnitude, fans masterpiece Travellers among Mountains and Streams bears a lost half-hidden signature rediscovered only in 1958. Culture of the Song Dynasty Chinese Painting Chinese art History of Chinese art Liu, shui mo yin yun, qi yun sheng dong de Zhongguo hui hua = Misty and Lively Chinese Painting. Taibei Shi, Guo li li shi bo wu guan, the Cambridge Illustrated History of China
24.
Guo Xi
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Guo Xi Chinese landscape painter from Henan Province who lived during the Northern Song dynasty. One text entitled The Lofty Message of Forest and Streams is attributed to him, the work covers a variety of themes centered on the appropriate way of painting a landscape. He was a professional, a literatus, well-educated painter who developed an incredibly detailed system of idiomatic brushstrokes which became important for later painters. One of his most famous works is Early Spring, dated 1072, the work demonstrates his innovative techniques for producing multiple perspectives which he called the angle of totality. The following is an excerpt from his treatise, mountains and waters, The clouds, in spring they are light and diffused, in summer rich and dense, in autumn scattered and thin, in winter dark and solitary. When such effects can be seen in pictures, the clouds, the mist around the mountains is not the same at the four seasons. Guo Xi was often referred to as a “Northern Song master” when it came to painting and his work inspired many later artists and he even had landscapes dedicated to him. His lesser-known “Deep Valley” scroll painting depicts a mountain valley covered with snow. The ink washes and amorphous brush strokes are employed to model surfaces that suggest the effects of the atmosphere. One of Guo Xi’s techniques was to layer ink washes to build up forms and his “Deep Valley” is a masterpiece of the use of light ink and magnificent composition. His son later described how Guo Xi approached his work, “On days when he was going to paint, he would seat himself at a table, by a bright window, burning incense to right. He would choose the finest brushes, the most equisite ink, wash his hands and he waited till his mind was calm and undisturbed, and then began. ”Culture of the Song Dynasty Chinese painting Chinese art History of Chinese art Barnhart, R. M. et al. Three thousand years of Chinese painting, ISBN 0-300-07013-6 Ci hai bian ji wei yuan hui,1979
25.
Dong Yuan
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Dong Yuan was a Chinese painter. Dong Yuan was active in the Southern Tang Kingdom of the Five Dynasties and he was from Nanjing, which was a center for culture and the arts. He was known for figure and landscape paintings, and exemplified the elegant style which would become the standard for brush painting in China for the next nine centuries. He and his pupil Juran were the founders of the Southern style of landscape painting, together with Jing Hao and Guan Tong of the Northern style they constituted the four seminal painters of that time. As with many artists in China, his profession was as an official, here he studied the styles of Li Sixun. However, he added to these techniques, he included more sophisticated perspective. The Xiao and Xiang Rivers or Scenes along the Xiao and Xiang Rivers and it demonstrates his exquisite techniques, and his sense of composition. The clouds break the mountains into a central pyramid composition. This gives the painting a more middle ground, and makes the mountains have an aura and distance which gives them greater grandeur. He also used face like patterns in the mountain on the right, culture of the Song Dynasty Chinese painting Chinese art Eight Views of Xiaoxiang History of Chinese art Xiaoxiang Xiaoxiang poetry Ci hai bian ji wei yuan hui. Shanghai, Shanghai ci shu chu ban she,1979
26.
Juran (painter)
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Juran was a Chinese landscape painter of the late Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms and early Northern Song periods. Very little is known about Jurans life, and not even his name is known. He was a native of Chiang-Ning and worked at the Southern Tang court in Jinling, around 975 Li Houzhu, the ruler of Southern Tang, surrendered to the Northern Song dynasty. Like many, he and his court were to move to the new capital, Bianjing and he lived and worked at the Kai-pao Buddhist temple in Bianjing, but quickly rose to prominence as landscape painter. All these works show influence of Dong Yuans style of rounded contours and soft brushstrokes, according to contemporary sources, Juran also painted a wall painting, Morning Scenery of Haze and Mist, very highly regarded by the artists of the time, but this work is lost. Culture of the Song Dynasty Chinese painting Chinese art History of Chinese art Orchid Pavilion Gathering Ci hai bian ji wei yuan hui Ci hai, Shanghai, Shanghai ci shu chu ban she,1979. The art of Chinese painting,2006
27.
Warring States period
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The Warring States Period derives its name from the Record of the Warring States, a work compiled early in the Han dynasty. The political geography of the era was dominated by the Seven Warring States, namely, Qin, The State of Qin was in the far west, with its core in the Wei River Valley and Guanzhong. This geographical position offered protection from the states of the Central Plains, the Three Jins, Northeast of Qin, on the Shanxi plateau, were the three successor states of Jin. These were, Han, south, along the Yellow River, Zhao, the northernmost of the three. Qi, located in the east of China, centred on the Shandong Peninsula, described as east of Mount Tai, Chu, located in the south of China, with its core territory around the valleys of the Han River and, later, the Yangtze River. Yan, located in the northeast, centred on modern-day Beijing, late in the period Yan pushed northeast and began to occupy the Liaodong Peninsula Besides these seven major states, some minor states also survived into the period. Yue, On the southeast coast near Shanghai was the State of Yue, Sichuan, In the far southwest were the States of Ba and Shu. These were non-Zhou states that were conquered by Qin late in the period, in the Central Plains comprising much of modern-day Henan Province, many smaller city states survived as satellites of the larger states, though they were eventually to be absorbed as well. Zhongshan, Between the states of Zhao and Yan was the state of Zhongshan, the Spring and Autumn period was initiated by the eastward flight of the Zhou court. There is no one single incident or starting point for the Warring States era, some proposed starting points are as follows,481 BC, Proposed by Song-era historian Lü Zuqian, since it is the end of the Spring and Autumn Annals. 476–475 BC, The author, Sima Qian, of Records of the Grand Historian who chose the year of King Yuan of Zhou. 403 BC, The year when Han, Zhao and Wei were officially recognised as states by the Zhou court, author Sima Guang of Zizhi Tongjian tells us that the symbol of eroded Zhou authority should be taken as the start of the Warring States era. The Spring and Autumn period led to a few states gaining power at the expense of many others, during the Warring States period, many rulers claimed the Mandate of Heaven to justify their conquest of other states and spread their influence. Other major states also existed, such as Wu and Yue in the southeast, the last decades of the Spring and Autumn era were marked by increased stability, as the result of peace negotiations between Jin and Chu which established their respective spheres of influence. This situation ended with the partition of Jin, whereby the state was divided between the houses of Han, Zhao and Wei, and thus enabled the creation of the seven major warring states. This allowed other clans to gain fiefs and military authority, and decades of struggle led to the establishment of four major families. The Battle of Jinyang saw the allied Han, Zhao and Wei destroy the Zhi family, with this, they became the de facto rulers of most of Jins territory, though this situation would not be officially recognised until half a century later. The Jin division created a vacuum that enabled during the first 50 years expansion of Chu and Yue northward
28.
Calligraphy
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Calligraphy is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a broad tip instrument, brush, a contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as, the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skillful manner. Modern calligraphy ranges from functional inscriptions and designs to fine-art pieces where the letters may or may not be readable, classical calligraphy differs from typography and non-classical hand-lettering, though a calligrapher may practice both. It is also used for props and moving images for film and television, testimonials, birth and death certificates, maps, the principal tools for a calligrapher are the pen and the brush. Calligraphy pens write with nibs that may be flat, round, for some decorative purposes, multi-nibbed pens—steel brushes—can be used. However, works have also created with felt-tip and ballpoint pens. There are some styles of calligraphy, like Gothic script, which require a stub nib pen, Writing ink is usually water-based and is much less viscous than the oil-based inks used in printing. Normally, light boxes and templates are used to achieve straight lines without pencil markings detracting from the work, ruled paper, either for a light box or direct use, is most often ruled every quarter or half inch, although inch spaces are occasionally used. This is the case with litterea unciales, and college-ruled paper often acts as a guideline well, common calligraphy pens and brushes are, Quill Dip pen Ink brush Qalam Fountain pen Western calligraphy is recognizable by the use of the Latin script. The Latin alphabet appeared about 600 BC, in Rome, and by the first century developed into Roman imperial capitals carved on stones, Rustic capitals painted on walls, in the second and third centuries the uncial lettering style developed. As writing withdrew to monasteries, uncial script was more suitable for copying the Bible. It was the monasteries which preserved calligraphic traditions during the fourth and fifth centuries, at the height of the Empire, its power reached as far as Great Britain, when the empire fell, its literary influence remained. The Semi-uncial generated the Irish Semi-uncial, the small Anglo-Saxon, each region developed its own standards following the main monastery of the region, which are mostly cursive and hardly readable. Christian churches promoted the development of writing through the copying of the Bible, particularly the New Testament. Two distinct styles of writing known as uncial and half-uncial developed from a variety of Roman bookhands, the 7th-9th centuries in northern Europe were the heyday of Celtic illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Durrow, Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells. Charlemagnes devotion to improved scholarship resulted in the recruiting of a crowd of scribes, according to Alcuin, Alcuin developed the style known as the Caroline or Carolingian minuscule. The first manuscript in hand was the Godescalc Evangelistary — a Gospel book written by the scribe Godescalc. Carolingian remains the one hand from which modern booktype descends
29.
Ink brush
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Ink brushes are used in Chinese calligraphy. They are also used in Chinese painting and descendant brush painting styles, the ink brush was invented in China, believed to be around 300 B. C. Together with the inkstone, inkstick and Xuan paper, these four writing implements form the Four Treasures of the Study, brushes differ greatly in terms of size, texture, material and cost. Stalk, Usually normal bamboo, exotic brushes instead may use materials like gold, silver, jade, ivory, red sandalwood or spotted bamboo. Hair source, Normally the brush is made from goat, Siberian weasel, pig, mouse, buffalo, wolf and rabbit hair, while exotic ones can be made from tiger, fowl, deer, hair texture, soft, mixed or hard hair. Certain textures are better for writing certain styles than others are, hair size, Generally classified as either big, medium or small, most calligraphy is written with a medium-sized brush. The smallest brushes are used for small pieces and for fashioning designs for seals. Medium brushes are the most widely used, wielded by a skilled artist, the largest brushes are used only for very large pieces. The hair one chooses to use depends on ones needs at the moment, certain kinds of brushes are more suited to certain script styles and individuals than others are. Prices vary greatly depending on the quality of the brush, cheap brushes cost less than a US dollar while expensive can cost more than a thousand, currently, the finest brushes are made in the town of Shanlian, in the district of Huzhou, Zhejiang province. The earliest intact ink brush was found in 1954, in the tomb of a Chu citizen during the Warring States period and this primitive version of an ink brush had a wooden stalk, and a bamboo tube secures the bundle of hair to the stalk. Legend wrongly credits the invention of the ink brush to the later Qin general Meng Tian, traces of the writing brush, however, were discovered on the Shang jades, and were suggested to be the grounds of the oracle bone inscriptions. The Fudepen, also known as Brush Pen, is a calligraphy oriented marker, today, Japanese companies such as Pentel and Sakura Color Products Corporation manufacture pens with brushes resembling those of a small ink brush as tips. These brush pens work almost identically to small ink brushes, Chinese calligraphy Huzhou ink brush Japanese calligraphy Korean calligraphy Xuan writing brush
30.
India ink
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India ink is a simple black or colored ink once widely used for writing and printing and now more commonly used for drawing and outlining, specially when inking comic books and comic strips. India ink is used in medical applications. Basic India ink is composed of a variety of fine soot, known as lampblack, no binder material is necessary, the carbon molecules are in colloidal suspension and form a waterproof layer after drying. A binding agent such as gelatin or, more commonly, shellac may be added to make the ink more durable once dried. India ink is sold in bottled form, as well as a solid form as an inkstick. If a binder is used, India ink may be waterproof or non-waterproof, the process of making India ink was known in China as early as the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, during Neolithic China. India ink was first invented in China, but the English term India ink was coined due to the trade with India. India ink has been in use in India since at least the 4th century BC, where it was called masi, indian documents written in Kharosthi with this ink have been unearthed in as far as Xinjiang, China. In India, the black from which India ink is formulated was obtained indigenously by burning bones, tar, pitch. To use the dry mixture, a wet brush would be applied until it reliquified, or more commonly in East Asian calligraphy, the manufacture of India ink was well-established by the Cao Wei dynasty. Historically the ink used in China were in the form of ink made of lampblack. A common ingredient in India ink, called black, has been used by many ancient historical cultures. For example, the ancient Egyptians and Greeks both had their own recipes for carbon black, one Greek recipe, from 40-90 AD, was written, documented and still exists today. A few professional tattoo artists sometimes use India ink for tattooing, India ink is also used in commonly-used artist pens, such as Faber-Castells fiber tipped Pitt pens. Many artists who use watercolor paint or other liquid mediums use waterproof India ink for their outlining because the ink does not bleed once it is dry, some other artists use both black and colored India ink as their choice medium in place of watercolors. Hanetsuki is a Japanese traditional game, similar to badminton, played by girls at the New Year with a wooden paddle called a hagoita. The shuttlecock must be kept in the air as long as possible, girls who fail to hit the shuttlecock get marked on the face with India ink. Amateur tattoo artists sometimes use India ink for tattooing the skin
31.
Animal glue
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An animal glue is an adhesive that is created by prolonged boiling of animal connective tissue. These protein colloid glues are formed through hydrolysis of the collagen from skins, bones, tendons, the word collagen itself derives from Greek κόλλα kolla, glue. These proteins form a bond with the glued object. Stereotypically, the animal in question is a horse, and horses that are put down are often said to have sent to the glue factory. However, other animals are used, including rabbits and fish. Animal glue has existed since ancient times, although its usage was not widespread, the first known written procedures of making animal glue were written about 2000 BC. Between 1500–1000 BC, it was used for furnishings and mural paintings. Evidence is in the form of carvings depicting glue preparation and use. Egyptian records tell that animal glue would be made by melting it over a fire, greeks and Romans later used animal and fish glue to develop veneering and marquetry, the bonding of thin sections or layers of wood. Animal glue, known as taurokolla in Greek and gluten taurinum in Latin, were made from the skins of bulls in antiquity, broken pottery might also be repaired with the use of animal glues, filling the cracks to hide imperfections. About 906–618 BC, China utilized fish, ox, and stag horns to produce adhesives, animal glues were employed as binders in paint media during the Tang Dynasty. Records indicate that one of the components of lampblack ink was proteinaceous glue. Ox glue and stag-horn glues bound particles of pigments together, acting as a preservative by forming a film over the surface as the ink dried, the Chinese, such as Kao Gong Ji, also researched glue for medicinal purposes. During the medieval ages, fish glue remained a source for painting and illuminating manuscripts, since the 16th century, hide glue has been used in the construction of violins. Native Americans would use hoof glue primarily as a binder and as a water-resistant coating by boiling it down from leftover animal parts and they occasionally used hide glue as paint to achieve patterns after applying pigments and tanning to hides. Hoof glue would be used for purposes aside from hides, such as a hair preservative, the Assiniboins preferred longer hair, so they would plaster the strands with a mixture of red earth and hoof glue. It would also be used to bind feathers and equipment together, the first commercial glue factory opened in Holland circa 1700, manufacturing animal glue from hides. The United States’ first glue factory opened in 1899, established by the Milwaukee Tanning Industry, during the 18th and 19th centuries, ranchers disposed of old animals – horses in particular – to glue factories
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Silk
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Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity, Silk is produced by several insects, but generally only the silk of moth caterpillars has been used for textile manufacturing. There has been research into other types of silk, which differ at the molecular level. Silk is mainly produced by the larvae of insects undergoing complete metamorphosis, Silk production also occurs in Hymenoptera, silverfish, mayflies, thrips, leafhoppers, beetles, lacewings, fleas, flies, and midges. Other types of arthropod produce silk, most notably various arachnids such as spiders, the word silk comes from Old English sioloc, from Greek σηρικός serikos, silken, ultimately from an Asian source. Several kinds of silk, which are produced by caterpillars other than the mulberry silkworm, have been known and used in China, South Asia. However, the scale of production was far smaller than for cultivated silks. Thus, the way to obtain silk suitable for spinning into textiles in areas where commercial silks are not cultivated was by tedious. Commercial silks originate from reared silkworm pupae, which are bred to produce a silk thread with no mineral on the surface. The pupae are killed by either dipping them in boiling water before the adult moths emerge or by piercing them with a needle. These factors all contribute to the ability of the cocoon to be unravelled as one continuous thread. Wild silks also tend to be difficult to dye than silk from the cultivated silkworm. Genetic modification of domesticated silkworms is used to facilitate the production of more types of silk. Silk fabric was first developed in ancient China, the earliest example of silk fabric is from 3630 BC, and it was used as wrapping for the body of a child from a Yangshao culture site in Qingtaicun at Xingyang, Henan. Legend gives credit for developing silk to a Chinese empress, Leizu, because of its texture and lustre, silk rapidly became a popular luxury fabric in the many areas accessible to Chinese merchants. Silk was in demand, and became a staple of pre-industrial international trade. In July 2007, archaeologists discovered intricately woven and dyed silk textiles in a tomb in Jiangxi province, Silk is described in a chapter on mulberry planting by Si Shengzhi of the Western Han
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Tang dynasty
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The Tang dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It is generally regarded as a point in Chinese civilization. Its territory, acquired through the campaigns of its early rulers, rivaled that of the Han dynasty. The dynasty was founded by the Lǐ family, who seized power during the decline, the dynasty was briefly interrupted when Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne, proclaiming the Second Zhou dynasty and becoming the only Chinese empress regnant. In two censuses of the 7th and 8th centuries, the Tang records estimated the population by number of registered households at about 50 million people. Various kingdoms and states paid tribute to the Tang court, while the Tang also conquered or subdued several regions which it controlled through a protectorate system. Besides political hegemony, the Tang also exerted a powerful influence over neighboring states such as those in Korea, Japan. Like the previous Sui dynasty, the Tang dynasty maintained a service system by recruiting scholar-officials through standardized examinations and recommendations to office. This civil order was undermined by the rise of military governors known as jiedushi during the 9th century. Chinese culture flourished and further matured during the Tang era, it is considered the greatest age for Chinese poetry. Two of Chinas most famous poets, Li Bai and Du Fu, belonged to this age, as did many famous painters such as Han Gan, Zhang Xuan, there was a rich variety of historical literature compiled by scholars, as well as encyclopedias and geographical works. The adoption of the title Tängri Qaghan by the Tang Emperor Taizong in addition to his title as emperor was eastern Asias first simultaneous kingship, there were many notable innovations during the Tang, including the development of woodblock printing. Buddhism became an influence in Chinese culture, with native Chinese sects gaining prominence. However, Buddhism would later be persecuted by the state, subsequently declining in influence, although the dynasty and central government were in decline by the 9th century, art and culture continued to flourish. This family was known as the Longxi Li lineage, which includes the Tang poet Li Bai, the Tang Emperors also had Xianbei maternal ancestry, from Emperor Gaozu of Tangs Xianbei mother Duchess Dugu. He had prestige and military experience, and was a first cousin of Emperor Yang of Sui, Li Yuan rose in rebellion in 617, along with his son and his equally militant daughter Princess Pingyang, who raised and commanded her own troops. In winter 617, Li Yuan occupied Changan, relegated Emperor Yang to the position of Taishang Huang or retired emperor, and acted as regent to the puppet child-emperor, Emperor Gong of Sui. On the news of Emperor Yangs murder by General Yuwen Huaji on June 18,618, Li Yuan declared himself the emperor of a new dynasty, the Tang
34.
Confucius
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Confucius was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and his followers competed successfully with many other schools during the Hundred Schools of Thought era only to be suppressed in favor of the Legalists during the Qin Dynasty. Following the victory of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin, aphorisms concerning his teachings were compiled in the Analects, but only many years after his death. Confuciuss principles had a basis in common Chinese tradition and belief and he championed strong family loyalty, ancestor veneration, and respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives. He also recommended family as a basis for ideal government and he espoused the well-known principle Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself, the Golden Rule. Confucius is also a deity in Daoism. According to tradition, three generations before Confucius time, his ancestors had migrated from the Song state to the Lu state, Confucius was a descendant of the Shang dynasty Kings through the Dukes of Song. Confucius family and personal name respectively was Kong Qiu, in Chinese, he is most often known as Kongzi. He is also known by the honorific Kong Fuzi, in the Wade–Giles system of romanization, the honorific name is rendered as Kung Fu-tzu. The Latinized name Confucius is derived from Kong Fuzi, and was first coined by 16th-century Jesuit missionaries to China, within the Analects, he is often referred to simply as the Master. In 1 AD, Confucius was given his first posthumous name, in 1530, he was declared the Extremely Sage Departed Teacher. He is also known separately as the Great Sage, First Teacher and it is generally thought that Confucius was born on September 28,551 BC. His birthplace was in Zou, Lu state and his father Kong He, also known as Shuliang He, was an officer in the Lu military. Kong died when Confucius was three years old, and Confucius was raised by his mother Yan Zhengzai in poverty and his mother would later die at less than 40 years of age. At age 19 he married his wife Qiguan, and a year later the couple had their first child, Qiguan and Confucius would later have two daughters together, one of whom is thought to have died early in her life as a child. Confucius was educated at schools for commoners, where he studied and learned the Six Arts, Confucius was born into the class of shi, between the aristocracy and the common people. When his mother died, Confucius is said to have mourned for three years, as was the tradition, the Lu state was headed by a ruling ducal house. Under the duke were three families, whose heads bore the title of viscount and held hereditary positions in the Lu bureaucracy
35.
Gu Kaizhi
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Gu Kaizhi, courtesy name Changkang, was a celebrated painter of ancient China. He was born in Wuxi and first painted at Nanjing in 364, in 366, he became an officer. Later he was promoted to royal officer and he was also a talented poet and calligrapher. He wrote three books about painting theory, On Painting, Introduction of Famous Paintings of Wei and Jin Dynasties and he wrote, In figure paintings the clothes and the appearances were not very important. The eyes were the spirit and the decisive factor, gus art is known today through copies of several silk handscroll paintings attributed to him. This painting, dated between the 6th and 8th century AD - probably an early Tang Dynasty copy - illustrates nine stories from a political satire about Empress Jia Nanfeng written by Zhang Hua. Beginning in the century, many collectors and emperors left seals, poems. The Admonitions scroll was stored in the treasure until it was looted by the British army in the Boxer Uprising in 1900. Now it is in the British Museum collection, missing the first three scenes, there is another surviving copy of this painting, made during the Song Dynasty and is now held in the Palace Museum in Beijing. The Song version is complete in twelve scenes, the painting is on silk and is a polychrome. The figures, whose countenances are at once solemn and tranquil, are described with a thin, the brush-mode. has been described as spring silkworms spitting silk. Take a good look at the way the clothing is painted and you see the exquisite variety. Nymph of the Luo River is a painting by Gu which illustrates a poem written by Cao Zhi and it survives in three copies dating to the Song Dynasty. One copy is now held in the Palace Museum in Beijing, the third was brought to Manchuria by the last emperor Pu Yi while he was the puppet emperor of Manchukuo under Japanese rule. When the Japanese surrendered in 1945 the painting disappeared, after ten years the Liaoning Province Museum recovered it. Wise and Benevolent Women survives in a 13th-century copy dating to the Song Dynasty and it illustrates a subset of the women described in the Han dynasty work Biographies of Exemplary Women. The 5 meter long scroll is divided into 10 sections, with each containing a short description. Xin, Yang, Chongzheng, Nie, Shaojun, Lang, Barnhard, Richard M, Three thousand years of Chinese painting, New Haven, Shanghai, Shanghai ci shu chu ban she （上海辞书出版社）,1979
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Six Dynasties
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Six Dynasties is a collective term for six Chinese dynasties in China during the periods of the Three Kingdoms, Jin dynasty, and Southern and Northern Dynasties. It also coincides with the era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and this era immediately followed the fall of the Han Dynasty in 220 AD, and was an era of disunity, instability and warfare. The term generally refers to two groupings of dynasties during that period, Six dynasties with capitals in Jiankang, and Six dynasties with legitimate lineage. Xu Song in Tang Dynasty wrote a book, Jiankang Shilu, that provides an account of Jiankang. Later Chinese called this period the Six Dynasties period, or Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Six Dynasties was an important era in the history of Chinese poetry, especially remarkable for its frank descriptions of love and beauty. Also significant, is the Zi Ye, or Lady Midnight style, buddhism, which first reached China in Eastern Han Dynasty, flourished in the Six Dynasties and became a major religion in China since then. The Japanese scholar Tanigawa Michio analyzed the Six Dynasty period to test general theories of Chinas historical development and that is, there an argument between those who see unilinear, monistic world history and those who conceive of a two-tracked or multitracked world history. The period established social and political patterns which shaped Chinas history from that point on, Chinese history Chinese sovereign Northern Dynasties Southern Dynasties Nanking Dien, Albert E. Medieval Chinese Society and the Local Community, Chinese Lyricism, Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century. ISBN 0-231-03464-4 http, //as. ff. uni-lj. si/datoteke/6. pdf SIX DYNASTIES CIVILIZATION Intellectual Trends Of The Early Six Dynasties Period Indiana University, ch 1 The Six Dynasties Dien, Six Dynasties Civilization. 300 to 600 CE, CHINA Asia for Educators Columbia University Weatherhead Institute
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Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
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Gautama Buddha
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Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni Buddha, or simply the Buddha, after the title of Buddha, was an ascetic and sage, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in the part of ancient India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region and he later taught throughout other regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala. Gautama is the figure in Buddhism. He is recognized by Buddhists as a teacher who attained full Buddhahood. Accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death, various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later. Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the facts of the Buddhas life. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddhas lifetime coincided with the flourishing of influential schools of thought like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism. Brahmajala Sutta records sixty-two such schools of thought, thus, Buddha was just one of the many śramaṇa philosophers of that time. The times of Gautamas birth and death are uncertain, most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet accepted by all historians. It was either a republic, or an oligarchy, and his father was an elected chieftain. He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, no written records about Gautama were found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, another one of his edicts mentions the titles of several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era. These texts may be the precursor of the Pāli Canon and they are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE. The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different and these include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, a poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa in the first century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE, the Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE
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Buddhahood
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In Buddhism, buddhahood is the condition or rank of a buddha. The goal of Mahayanas Bodhisattva path is Samyaksambuddhahood, so one may benefit all sentient beings by teaching them the path of cessation of dukkha. This contrasts with the goal of Hinayana path, where the goal is Arhatship, in Theravada Buddhism, Buddha refers to one who has become awakened through their own efforts and insight, without a teacher to point out the Dharma. A samyak sambuddha teaches the dharma to others after his awakening, a pratyeka-buddha also reaches Nirvana through his own efforts, but does not teach the dharma to others. An Arhat needs to follow the teaching of a Buddha to attain Nirvana, in this broader sense it is equivalent to Arahant. Buddhahood is the state of an enlightened being, who having found the path of cessation of suffering, is in the state of No-more-Learning. There is a spectrum of opinion on the universality and method of attainment of Buddhahood. The level to which this manifestation requires ascetic practices varies from none at all to a requirement, dependent on doctrine. Mahayana Buddhism emphasizes the Bodhisattva ideal instead of the Arhat, the Tathagatagarba and Buddha-nature doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism consider Buddhahood to be a universal and innate property of absolute wisdom. This wisdom is revealed in a current lifetime through Buddhist practice. Buddhists do not consider Siddhartha Gautama to have been the only Buddha, the Pali Canon refers to many previous ones, while the Mahayana tradition additionally has many Buddhas of celestial origin. A common Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist belief is that the next Buddha will be one named Maitreya, the various Buddhist schools hold some varying interpretations on the nature of Buddha. All Buddhist traditions hold that a Buddha is fully awakened and has completely purified his mind of the three poisons of desire, aversion and ignorance, a Buddha is no longer bound by Samsara, and has ended the suffering which unawakened people experience in life. Most schools of Buddhism have also held that the Buddha was omniscient, however, the early texts contain explicit repudiations of making this claim of the Buddha. Some Buddhists meditate on the Buddha as having ten characteristics, in the Madhupindika Sutta, Buddha is described in powerful terms as the Lord of the Dhamma and the bestower of immortality. Similarly, in the Anuradha Sutta Buddha is described as the Tathagata—the supreme man, actually, the Buddha was a human being, not a mere human being as is sometimes said but a special class of human called a complete person. Such complete persons are no different from others and indeed they physically remain quite ordinary. Sangharakshita also states that The first thing we have to understand -, but a special kind of human being, in fact the highest kind, so far as we know
40.
Prince Zhanghuai
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Li Xian, courtesy name Mingyun, formally Crown Prince Zhanghuai, named Li De from 672 to 674, was a crown prince of the Chinese Tang Dynasty. He was the son of Emperor Gaozong, and the second son of his second wife Empress Wu. He was known for writing commentaries for the Book of Later Han and he became crown prince in 675 after his older brother Li Hongs death, but soon fell out of favor with Empress Wu herself. In 680, Empress Wu had her associates accuse Li Xian of treason, in 684, after Emperor Gaozongs death, Empress Wu, then empress dowager, had her associate Qiu Shenji visit Li Xian to force him to commit suicide. In 706, his younger brother Emperor Zhongzong provided Li Xian with a burial by interring his remains at the Qianling Mausoleum. Li Xian was born in 653, as the son of Emperor Gaozong. There were, however, persistent rumors inside the palace that he was not actually born of Consort Wu, in 655, the same year that his mother Consort Wu displaced Emperor Gaozongs first wife Empress Wang as empress, Li Xian was created the Prince of Lu. In 656, he was initially given the post of prefect of Qi Prefecture. In 661, his title was changed to Prince of Pei, and he was given the titles of commandant at Yang Prefecture and major general, at this time, he had the literarily talented official Wang Bo on staff. Around this time, the princes were often engaged in cockfighting. In 672, Li Xians title was changed to Prince of Yong, and he was given the titles of commandant at Liang Prefecture and his name was also changed to Li De. In 674, his name was changed back to Li Xian, in 675, Li Xians older brother Li Hong the crown prince died—a death that traditional historians generally believed to be a poisoning ordered by Empress Wu. On July 3, Li Xian was created crown prince to replace Li Hong, Emperor Gaozong soon ordered that much of government matters be ruled on by Li Xian, and Li Xian was praised for making good decisions. Meanwhile, Li Xians relationship with Empress Wu began to deteriorate, as Li Xian had heard the rumors that he was actually the son of Lady of Han, and had become fearful. The Prince of Ying has an appearance most similar to Emperor Taizong, meanwhile, Li Xian was also known for his liking of music and women. When Empress Wu heard this, she had people report this to Emperor Gaozong, who ordered an investigation led by the officials Xue Yuanchao, Pei Yan, Emperor Gaozong, who had favored Li Xian, considered pardoning him, but Empress Wu refused. On September 20,680, Emperor Gaozong deposed Li Xian and reduced him to commoner rank and his close associates were executed, and the seized armor was burned publicly to demonstrate Li Xians treason. Li Zhe was created crown prince to replace him, in 683, Li Xian was moved from Changan to Ba Prefecture
41.
Qianling Mausoleum
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The Qianling Mausoleum is a Tang dynasty tomb site located in Qian County, Shaanxi province, China, and is 85 km northwest from Xian, formerly the Tang capital. Built by 684, the tombs of the complex house the remains of various members of the House of Li. This includes Emperor Gaozong, as well as his wife, Wu Zetian, the mausoleum is renowned for its many Tang dynasty stone statues located above ground and the mural paintings adorning the subterranean walls of the tombs. Besides the main mound and underground tomb of Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian. Following his death in 683, Emperor Gaozongs mausoleum complex was completed in 684, after her death, Wu Zetian was interred in a joint burial with Emperor Gaozong at Qianling on July 2,706. Besides the attendant tombs of royal family members, two others that have been excavated belonging to Chancellor Xue Yuanchao and General of the Left Guard Li Jinxing. The five attendant tombs mentioned above were opened and excavated in the 1960s, in March 1995, there was an organized petition to the Chinese government about efforts to finally excavate Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetians tomb. The mausoleum is located on Mount Liang, north of the Wei River, the grounds of the mausoleum are flanked by Leopard Valley to the east and Sand Canyon to the west. Although there are tumulus mounds to demarcate where each tomb is located, the tumulus mounds on the southern peaks are called Naitoushan or Nipple Hills, due to their resemblance to the shape of nipples. The Nipple Hills, with towers erected on the top of each to accentuate the hills name, the main tumulus mound is on the northern peak, it is the tallest of the mounds and is the burial place of Gaozong and Wu Zetian. Halfway up this northern peak, the builders of the site dug a 61 m long and 4 m wide tunnel into the rock of the mountain leads to the inner tomb chambers located deep within the mountain. The complex was enclosed by two walls, the remains of which have been discovered today, including what was four gatehouses of the inner wall. The inner wall was 2.4 m thick, with a perimeter of 5920 m enclosing a trapezoidal area of 240,000 m2. Only some corner parts of the wall have been discovered. During the Tang dynasty, there were hundreds of houses that surrounded Qianling, inhabited by families that maintained the grounds. The remains of some of houses have since been discovered. The building foundation of the timber offering hall situated at the gate of the mausoleums inner wall has also been discovered. Leading into the mausoleum is a way, which is flanked on both sides with stone statues like the later tombs of the Song dynasty and Ming Dynasty Tombs
42.
Tang dynasty painting
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During the Tang dynasty, as a golden age in Chinese civilization, Chinese painting developed dramatically, both in subject matter and technique. The advancements in technique and style that characterized Tang painting had an influence in the art of other countries, especially in East Asia. During the early Tang period, the style was mainly inherited from the previous Sui dynasty. In this period, the painting of people developed greatly, buddhist painting and court painting played a major role, including paintings of the Buddha, monks, nobles etc. One of the first landscape murals is located in Han Xius tomb, brothers Yan Liben and Yan Lide were among the most prolific painters of this period. Yan Liben was the personal portraitist to the Emperor Taizong, the landscape painting technique developed quickly in this period and reached its first maturation. Li Sixun and Li Zhaodao were the most famous painters in this domain, the painting of people also reached a climax. The outstanding master in this field is Wu Daozi, who is referred to as the Sage of Painting, wus works include God Sending a Son. Wu created a new technique of drawing named Drawing of Water Shield, the great poet Wang Wei first created the brush and ink painting of shan-shui, literally mountains and waters. He further combined literature, especially poetry, with painting, the use of line in painting became much more calligraphic than in the early period. The theory of painting developed, and Buddhism, Taoism. Paintings on architectural structures, such as murals, ceiling paintings, cave paintings, an example is the paintings in the Mogao Caves in Xinjiang during this period. Tang painting had a influence on East Asian painting and central Asia painting. Chinese art Chinese painting Tang dynasty art Ming dynasty painting Eichenbaum, new York, Oxford University Press,1996. New York, Harper & Row,1980
43.
Zhou Fang (Tang dynasty)
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Zhou Fang, courtesy name Zhonglang, was an influential painter during the mid-Tang dynasty. Zhou lived in the Tang capital of Changan, which is now modern Xian and he came from a noble background and this was reflected in his works, such as Court Ladies Adorning Their Hair with Flowers and Court Lady With Servants. He was influenced by the pure and detailed style of Gu Kaizhi, the late Tang art critic Zhu Jingxuan said, Zhou Fangs Buddha, celestial beings, figures, and paintings of beautiful women are all incredible masterpieces. Zhang Xuan, another significant painter of the middle Tang dynasty, skillful Court Lady Painters, describing the work of Zhou Fang and Zhang Xuan
44.
Wu Daozi
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Wu Daozi, also known as Daoxuan, was a Chinese artist of the Tang Dynasty. Michael Sullivan considers him one of the masters of the century, Some of his works survive, many. Wu traveled widely and created murals in Buddhist and Daoist temples, Wu also drew mountains, rivers, flowers, birds. No authentic originals are extant, though some exist in later copies or stone carvings, Wus famous painting of Confucius was preserved by having been copied in a stone engraving. Numerous legends gathered around Wu Daozi, often concerning commissions by Emperor Xuanzong, in one, he painted a wall mural displaying a rich nature-scene set in a valley, containing a stunning array of flora and fauna and including a cave at the foot of a mountain. The story goes that he clapped his hands and entered the cave, the painter entered the cave but the entrance closed behind him and, before the astonished emperor could move or utter a word, the painting vanished from the wall. The contemporary Swedish writer Sven Lindqvist meditates on this legend and the challenge that it poses to modern aesthetics in his book, The Myth of Wu Tao-Tzu. Another legend states that Emperor Xuanzong sent Wu Daozi to Sichuan to study the waters of the Jialing River in order to complete a mural of its entire course. Supposedly, Wu returned without sketches and rapidly painted the river from memory. It is sometimes added that his technique was foiled by Li Sixun, to the extent that it is grounded in a real event, however, it probably only reflects Wus speed of execution and not a lack of reliance on sketches. Another has it that a painter found one of the last surviving murals of Wu Daozi and he then destroyed the wall, possibly by pushing it into a river, to ensure that no one else could learn the same secrets. The Presentation of Buddha was featured in recent television presentations in China
45.
Shan shui
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Shan shui refers to a style of traditional Chinese painting that involves or depicts scenery or natural landscapes, using a brush and ink rather than more conventional paints. Mountains, rivers and often waterfalls are prominent in art form. Shan shui painting first arose to prominence during the 5th century and it was later characterized by a group of landscape painters such as Zhang Zeduan, most of them already famous, who produced large-scale landscape paintings. These landscape paintings usually centered on mountains, mountains had long been seen as sacred places in China, which were viewed as the homes of immortals and thus, close to the heavens. Philosophical interest in nature, or in mystical connotations of naturalism, the art of shan shui, like many other styles of Chinese painting has a strong reference to Taoist imagery and motifs, as symbolisms of Taoism strongly influenced Chinese landscape painting. Most dictionaries and definitions of shan shui assume that the term includes all ancient Chinese paintings with mountain, contemporary Chinese painters, however, feel that only paintings with mountain and water images that follow specific conventions of form, style and function should be called shan shui painting. When Chinese painters work on shan shui painting, they do not try to present an image of what they have seen in the nature, no one cares whether the painted colors and shapes look like the real object or not. According to Cheng Hsi, Shan shui painting is a kind of painting which goes against the definition of what a painting is. Shan shui painting refutes color, light and shadow and personal brush work, Shan shui painting is not an open window for the viewers eye, it is an object for the viewers mind. Shan shui painting is more like a vehicle of philosophy, Shan shui paintings involve a complicated and rigorous set of almost mystical requirements for balance, composition, and form. All shan shui paintings should have 3 basic components, Paths - Pathways should never be straight and they should meander like a stream. This helps deepen the landscape by adding layers, the path can be the river, or a path along it, or the tracing of the sun through the sky over the shoulder of the mountain. The concept is to never create inorganic patterns, but instead to mimic the patterns that nature creates, the Threshold - The path should lead to a threshold. The threshold is there to embrace you and provide a special welcome, the threshold can be the mountain, or its shadow upon the ground, or its cut into the sky. The concept is always that a mountain or its boundary must be defined clearly, the Heart - The heart is the focal point of the painting and all elements should lead to it. The heart defines the meaning of the painting, the concept should imply that each painting has a single focal point, and that all the natural lines of the painting direct inwards to this point. Positive interactions between the Elements are, Wood produces Fire Fire produces Earth Earth produces Metal Metal produces Water Water produces Wood, Elements that react positively should be used together. For example, Water complements both Metal and Wood, therefore, a painter would combine blue and green or blue, there is a positive interaction between Earth and Fire, so a painter would mix Yellow and Red
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Monochrome
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Monochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or values of one color. A monochromatic object or image reflects colors in shades of limited colors or hues, images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white. However, scientifically speaking, monochromatic light refers to light of a narrow band of wavelengths. In computing, monochrome has two meanings, it may mean having only one color which is either on or off, a monochrome computer display is able to display only a single color, often green, amber, red or white, and often also shades of that color. In film photography, monochrome is typically the use of black-and-white film, originally, all photography was done in monochrome. Although color photography was possible even in the late 19th century, easily used color films, if the red channel is eliminated and the green and blue combined then the effect will be similar to that of orthochromatic film or the use of a cyan filter on panchromatic film. The selection of weighting thus allows a range of artistic expression in the final monochromatic image. For production of an image the original color stereogram source may first be reduced to monochrome in order to simplify the rendering of the image. This is sometimes required in cases where an image would render in a confusing manner given the colors and patterns present in the source image. In physics, monochromatic light is electromagnetic radiation of a single frequency, even very controlled sources such as lasers operate in a range of frequencies. In practice, filtered light, diffraction grating separated light and laser light are all referred to as monochromatic. Often light sources can be compared and one be labeled as “more monochromatic”
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