Ancient Chinese Painting
Painted pottery
Chinese traditional painting dates back to the Neolithic Age about 6,000 years ago. The excavated
colored pottery with painted human faces, fish, animal and plants reflect various aspects of the life
of primitive clan communities. The line patterns on unearthed pottery ware resemble ripples,
fishing nets, teeth. The animal and human figures, succinct and vivid, are proofs to the innate
sensitivity of the ancient artists to the nature.
Rock painting
Paintings or engravings found on precipitous cliffs in Sichuan, Yunnan and Mongolia; Heihe in the
far north and Altai in China's extreme west are even more ancient. Strong visual effects
characterize the bright red cliff paintings in southern China that depict scenes of sacrificial rites,
production activities and daily life. In comparison, hunting, animal grazing, wars and dancing are
the main themes of cliff paintings in northern China.
Silk painting
Silk painting is the work painted on silk. The painting unearthed in 1949 from a tomb of Chu of
the Warring States Period in the southern suburb of Changsha, Hunan Province, was painted on
silk with human figures, dragons and phoenixes. It is the earliest work on silk ever discovered in
China and measures about 30 centimeters long by 20 centimeters wide. From this and other early
paintings on silk showing vigour and elegance, it can be seen that the ancients were already
familiar with the art of the writing or painting on silk with brush. Silk painting kept developing
before the invention of paper and reached its artistic peak in the Western Han Dynasty.
Paper painting
Paintings on paper appeared much later than those on silk for the simple reason that the invention
of silk preceded that of paper by a long historical period. In 1964, when a tomb dating to the Jin
Dynasty was excavated at Astana in Turpan, Xinjiang, a colored painting on paper was discovered.
It shows on the upper the sun, the moon and the Big Dipper and at the lower a man with a fan in
his hand. The portrayal, 106.5 centimeters long and 47 centimeters wide, is the only known
painting on paper of such antiquity in China.