CHINESE ART - By Autumn Boyet-Stinton (Original Article Written 6/18/2008)

The impact of the Chinese in the development of ART is one that cannot be overlooked.  Chinese civilization began more than 4000 years ago and the creativity and means to express that creativity have always been a part of Chinese history.  We must give credit to the Chinese for many artistic achievements.  The earliest art forms were rock and stone, and their legacy includes a number of different ART “ages” (There ages include the Bronze Age, Stone Age, and Neolithic or New Stone Age.) 

Especially noteworthy is an invention credited to the Chinese during the T’ang Dynasty…..The invention of PAPER!     

During this time people began using what were called “papercuts” to decorate windows, houses, clothes and even ladies hair. In these thin and fragile papercuts, they would create animals, aerobics, Buddha, opera faces and other subjects. Check out some of these amazing, detailed papercuts:  

http://www.dodoskido.com/images/101fortune.jpg , http://www.craft-in-china.com/images/k042%20longma.jpg

The influence of Chinese ART is worth a moment of contemplation.  Chinese arts were and are influenced by three major religions: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Another major influence was nature. The three major kinds of subject they liked to paint were birds, flowers, and landscapes from the countryside. All the religions stress love for nature. All landscape painters tried to get a feeling of the human spirit and the strength of the wind, water, mist and mountains. Painting became an art form more than 2000 years ago then influenced the later painters. 

As time went on in Chinese history, dynasties came and went.  From the T’ang Dynasty, to the Zhou Dynasty, and then to the Qin Dynasty, the art forms only increased.  What may have started as rock and stone creations soon developed in to the detailed and fragile collection of paintings, folk arts, silk, calligraphy, pottery, sculpture, metal arts and papercuts.

Early forms of art in China during the Neolithic period were made from pottery and detailed jade work.  The Shang Dynasty that followed brought bronze work into their ART and they are most remembered for their blue casting, noted for its clarity of detail. Not to be overlooked, the Chinese were very involved in the ARTISTIC development of music and poetry. Confucius and the sayings and poetry associated with Confucius are well known and recalled even today.  Chinese music was based on percussion instruments, which later gave away to string and reed instruments.

Also finding a place in our common every day life is another work of art from the Chinese.  In early imperial China, porcelain was introduced into their works or ART and refined to the point that in English the word china has become synonymous with high-quality porcelain.

Around the 1st century AD, with the arrival of Buddhism in China, Chinese Buddhist art began to flourish, and has continued to flourish until our present day.  During the Imperial China period, calligraphy and painting became highly appreciated arts in court circles, with a great deal of work done on silk until well after the invention of paper.

Buddhist architecture also thrived in Sui and T’and Dynasties.  I don’t have much of a background in this area, but can understand by simply observing the amazing lines of Chinese architecture, that ART is a predominant factor in building a structure in the Chinese culture. 

Suring the Song Dynasty, poetry was marked by a lyric poetry known as “CI” which expressed feelings of desire, often in an adopted persona. Also in the Song dynasty, paintings of more subtle expression of landscapes appeared, with blurred outlines and mountain contours which conveyed distance through an impressionistic treatment of natural phenomena. It was during this period that in painting, emphasis was placed on spiritual rather than emotional elements, as in the previous period.   “KUNGA” the oldest form of Chinese opera also developed during the Song Dynasty.   A very fitting name for a Dynasty in light of the ARTISTIC development of the time if you ask me! 

Late imperial China was marked by the Ming and Qing Dynasties.  Again, poetry was popular, and during this time the Chinese perfected color painting and color printing.  During the Qing Dynasty opera once again was a focused ART.  Beijing opera was introduced and it is now considered one of the best-known forms of Chinese opera. A poet by the name of Yuan Mei brought clarity, elegance, personal feeling and technical perfection to the opera.  

A very interesting form of ART in the Chinese culture is SCULPTURES.  Sculptures played significant roles in the Chinese culture as well as in the land’s development of ART.  While the medium varied from stone, jade, lacquer, wood, metal, and clay, the purpose of the sculpture was also variable.  They weren’t only for admiring and décor, but they were used as everyday items like a wine bucket, mirrors, pottery, and pendants. A famous example is the sculptures of the Terra cotta warriors. (http://www.terracotta-army.co.uk/Storage/Pics/54/2-1.jpg)  They were buried with the body of an emperor to protect the emperor in his afterlife. 

Chinese arts cover a very broad range of subjects. In papercuts you will find that a favorite to be Buddhas, opera faces, animals, flowers, children, and aerobics. Sometimes in their painting they would use black and white, having one object with each color. One of their favorite subjects was nature. They believed that the spirit of nature gives life to everything, so if painting nature the painter must capture the feeling of nature. Zodiac animals, landscapes, opera faces, figure painting, mountains, and cranes, which were a symbol for long life, were popular subjects for their paintings. Emperors and their court was another important subject for painting as is in most civilizations. 

Not to be overlooked in the long list of Chinese ART is the art of gardening.  This will of course include Bonsai.  A Chinese garden is created as an ART form.  They are places for solitary or social contemplation of nature. To be considered authentic, a garden must be built and planned around seventeen essential elements: 1) proximity to the home; 2) small; 3) walled; 4) small individual sections; 5) asymmetrical; 6) various types of spatial connections; 7) architecture; 8) rocks; 9) water; 10) trees; 11) plants; 12) sculpture; 13)jie jing (borrowed scenery); 14) chimes; 15) incense burners; 16) inscriptions; 17) use of feng shui for choosing site.

Chinese gardens were created in a way that incorporated a combination of landscape, paintings, architecture and poems, thus creating a "poetic garden." The design of Chinese gardens was to provide a spiritual utopia for one to connect with nature, to come back to one's inner heart, to come back to ancient idealism.  Chinese gardens are a spiritual shelter for men, a place they could be far away from their real social lives, and close to the ancient way of life, their true selves, and nature. 

Most all things in a Chinese garden are symbols.  Bamboo is used in every traditional Chinese garden to represents a strong but resilient character. Pine is used to represent longevity, persistence, tenacity and dignity. The lotus is used to symbolize purity. The flowering plum is one of the most important aspects of a Chinese garden, as it represents renewal and strength of will. Flowering peaches are grown for spring color.  The mum is use to symbolize splendor, luster and "the courage to make sacrifices for a natural life". Peonies symbolize wealth and banana trees are used simply for the sound they make in the breeze.  HOW “ZEN” IS THAT!?!

Decorative rocks are used both for structural and sculptural purposes. The sculptural Taihu rock is especially prized because it represents wisdom and immortality, and is only procurable from Tai Lake.  During the Song dynasty, they were the most expensive objects in the empire. Such rocks, combined with streams and pools, form the basis of a garden's plan. The Chinese word for landscape, shan shui, literally means "mountains and waters" while a common phrase for making a garden means "digging ponds and piling mountains".  Therefore, it only makes sense that Chinese gardens usually feature a central pond and several off shooting streams. The softness of water offsets the solidity of the rocks, while also acting to reflect the constantly changing sky above.

It is obvious that the development of ART owes much to the Chinese Civilization.  However, it seems to me that the contributions made may at times take a back seat to other well known instances in out ART history. 

I personally find that the artist in me is drawn to the very primitive ideals that the Chinese were careful to incorporate and renew as their ART develop.  Those being that a love for nature must be paramount and that ART should be about attempting to capture the “feeling of the human spirit and the strength of the wind, water, mist and mountains.”

How do you capture spirit and feeling in your art?  Are you leaving a legacy, a history of development in your ART?