Chinese Arts and Literature

Chinese Arts
The arts of China have varied throughout its ancient history, divided into periods by the
ruling dynasties of China and changing technology, but still containing a high degree of continuity.
Chinese arts includes:

 Painting
 Calligraphy
 Architecture
 Pottery
 Sculpture
 Bronzes
 jade carving
 silk

Chinese Painting - one of the major art forms produced in China over the centuries. One of the
outstanding characteristics of Chinese art is the extent to which it reflects the class structure that
has existed at different times in Chinese history.
Here are some of the famous Chinese paintings.
1. One Hundred Horses - was drawn by Lang Shining in Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The
artwork is now preserved in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
2. Emperor Taizong Receiving the Tibetan Envoy – was paint by Yan Liben was one of
the most revered Chinese figure painters in the early years of the Tang dynasty (618–
907).
3. Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains - is the magnum opus and one of the few surviving
works by the painter Huang Gongwang in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).
4. Five Oxen - a painting by Han Huang, a prime minister in the Tang Dynasty (618–907).

Chinese Calligraphy - the stylized artistic writing of Chinese characters, the written form
of Chinese that unites the languages (many mutually unintelligible) spoken in China.
Because calligraphy is considered supreme among the visual arts in China, it sets the standard
by which Chinese painting is judged. Indeed, the two arts are closely related.
The earliest known Chinese logographs are engraved on the shoulder bones of large animals and
on tortoise shells. For this reason the script found on these objects is commonly called jiaguwen,
or shell-and-bone script.
It was said that Cangjie, the legendary inventor of Chinese writing, got his ideas from observing
animals’ footprints and birds’ claw marks on the sand as well as other natural phenomena. He
then started to work out simple images from what he conceived as representing different objects
such as those that are given below:
Chinese Architecture - the built structures of China, specifically those found in the 18 historical
provinces of China. As a result of wars and invasions, there are few existing buildings in China
predating the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).
Some of china’s early structure that still remains are the following:
1. Great Wall of China - is an ancient series of walls and fortifications located in northern
China, built around 500 years ago. Estimates of its length vary from 1,500 to 5,000 miles.
2. Chinese pagodas - are a traditional part of Chinese architecture. In addition to religious
use, since ancient times Chinese pagodas have been praised for the spectacular views
they offer, and many famous poems in Chinese history attest to the joy of scaling pagodas.
3. The Forbidden City - is the world's largest collection of well-preserved medieval wooden
structures. It was built as the palace of the Ming emperors of China. It is located in the
center of Beijing, China, and was the Chinese imperial palace from the mid-Ming
Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1912.
Chinese Pottery - also called Chinese ceramics, objects made of clay and hardened by
heat: earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain, particularly those made in China. Nowhere in the
world has pottery assumed such importance as in China, and the influence of Chinese porcelain
on later European pottery has been profound.
Chinese Bronzes - bronze objects that were cast in China beginning before 1500 BCE. Most of
these bronze objects were intended for use in rituals, nearly always for the preparation or
presentation of offerings of food, drink, flowers, or incense, nearly always directed to
ancestors. The primary role of bronze objects was as symbols of elite status.
Chinese Lacquer work - decorative work produced in China by the application of many coats
of lacquer to a core material such as wood, bamboo, or cloth. The Chinese had discovered as
early as the Shang dynasty that the juice of the lac tree a naturally occurring polymer, could be
used for forming hard but lightweight vessels when built up in very thin layers through the repeated
dipping of a core of carved wood, bamboo, or cloth. With the addition of pigments, most commonly
red and black, less frequently green and yellow, it could also be used for painting and decorating
the outer layers of these vessels.
Chinese Jade - any of the carved-jade objects produced in China from the Neolithic
Period onward. The Chinese have historically regarded carved-jade objects as intrinsically
valuable, and they metaphorically equated jade with purity and indestructibility. Jade occupies a
special place in Chinese artistic culture, valued as gold is in the West but hallowed with even
loftier moral connotations.
Silk - animal fiber produced by certain insects and arachnids as building material for cocoons and
webs, some of which can be used to make fine fabrics. In commercial use, silk is almost entirely
limited to filaments from the cocoons of domesticated silkworms.
Chinese Literature
Chinese literature extends thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic
court archives to the mature vernacular fiction novels that arose during the Ming Dynasty to
entertain the masses of literate Chinese.
The Four Great Classical Novels of china are:
 Dream of the Red Chamber, by Cao Xueqin.
 Water Margin (also translated as Outlaws of the Marsh), by Shi Naian.
 Romance of the Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guanzhong.
 Journey to the West, by Wu Cheng'en.
Dream of the Red Chamber- also called ”The Story of the Stone” was written sometime in the
middle of the 18th century during the Qing dynasty. It is intended to be a memorial to the damsels
he knew in his youth: friends, relatives and servants. The novel is remarkable not only for its huge
cast of characters and psychological scope, but also for its precise and detailed observation of
the life and social structures typical of 18th-century Chinese society.
Water Margin- tells of how a group of 108 outlaws gather at Mount Liang (or Liangshan Marsh)
to form a sizable army before they are eventually granted amnesty by the government and sent
on campaigns to resist foreign invaders and suppress rebel forces.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms -is a 14th-century historical novel attributed to Luo
Guanzhong. It is set in the turbulent years towards the end of the Han dynasty and the Three
Kingdoms period in Chinese history, starting in 169 AD and ending with the reunification of the
land in 280.
Journey to the West- is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming
dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It tells the story of one of Buddha Sakyamuni’s disciples
who was banished from the heavenly paradise for the crime of slighting the Buddha Law.
1. Magnum opus - Latin for “great work” or “masterpiece”.
2. Logograph - abbreviated symbol for a frequently recurring word or phrase.
3. Fortification - a defensive wall or other reinforcement built to strengthen a place against
attack.
4. Attest - provide or serve as clear evidence of.
5. Lacquer - the sap of the lacquer tree used as a varnish
6. Profound - very great or intense.
7. Filaments - a slender thread-like object or fiber, especially one found in animal or plant
structures.
8. Neolithic - relating to the later part of the Stone Age
9. Loftier - of a noble or elevated nature.
10. Medieval – relating to the Middle Ages.
11. Connotation – primary meaning.