When we talk about painting in the People\u2019s Republic of China we can start the historical review at the neolithic period, that is with the bowls of the neolithic Yangshao culture (5000-3000 BCE),as well as the Majiayao culture (3000-1900 BCE). Bowls found at the sites of these cultures are decorated with geometric patterns drawn with confident brushstrokes that tell us about the extraordinary art of painting of our neolithic craftsmen.<\/p>\n
In general, the history of painting in the People\u2019s Republic of China is extremely rich with testimonies about the master painters from the distant past. The murals found in tombs from the times of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE \u2013 220 AD) testify on their confident brush strokes, but, unfortunately, a large part of the paintings from the early dynasties perished because the material on which they were made did not withstood the passing of time. Nevertheless, today we know a lot about the rich history of the early dynasty painting due to a vast written material which has survived: the oldest surviving treatises on painting and painters together with the anthology of painters\u2019 categorization and descriptions of their work date from the 4th century. From this material we can learn the names of several masters, where they lived and how some of their paintings looked. Plenty of paintings came to us in the form of copies. Copying the old masters had more than a didactic function, by copying them one approached not so much the aesthetic sample as did the moral ideal.<\/p>\n
The term guohua denotes the traditional Chinese painting. Two major subspecies of guohua painting refer to two techniques that were profiled during the Traditional China (221 BCE \u2013 1911 AD) \u2013 gongbi and shue. Gongbi is the name of a painting technique used mainly at the imperial court\u2019s workshops, in which painters painted meticulous strokes of colours on silk, on paintings used to decorate the royal chambers. In this technique all members of the imperial family tried painting. Shue painting emerged from the practice of literati painting \u2013 educated people during the Traditional China who mainly worked in the administration from the 11th century onwards and took paintings of landscapes with no desire to sell or show their work to anyone other than their friends. Since being highly educated, and some of them are extremely talented, they founded one of the most beautiful painting genres shanshui or landscape painting of the literati. They painted using the material found in their daily administrative work \u2013 indian ink and a soft brush made of animal hair on porous paper, making this type of painting directly associated with Chinese calligraphy. Today when we say wenrenhua, we mean the painting of the literati.<\/p>\n
When complained that what they were doing was not real painting because they were not trained as painters, they would have just replied that they did not have to learn how to paint because they had already known how to use a brush because they had used it daily in their work. They tried to avoid the use of colour and a simple allure of the silk as a base, and they preferred the porous rice paper as a surface of their work. Their priority was not to create an authentic copy of a given geographical areas, but to see what kind of man was the one who had painted the work. They said they were just \u2018borrowing\u2019 natural forms to express their feelings. Over time the thematic elements and motives in paintings, based on individual stroke of the brush on a rice paper, became other than landscape. At first it was the motive of \u2018birds and flowers\u2019, but today when we talk about shuimo painting we think, in the first place, of the technique because the number of painterly motifs is practically unlimited. The most important figure among the literati painters was Su Shi, who lived in the formative period of the Song Dynasty (960 AD to 1279 AD). Su Shi was an imperial administrator, a poet, calligrapher and a painter. Unfortunately, today we have preserved only one painting that is assumed it could be his.<\/p>\n
The educated people (the literati) in the Traditional China sought to develop all of their talents. This way one and the same person tended to be a talented painter, writer and a calligrapher. For those who achieved this it would have been said to possess the \u201cthree perfections\u201d, or sanjue. Testimony to such talents was presented in the form of a landscape painting on which poetry would be calligraphically inscribed. All from the same author. The poetry has always had a connection with the motif of the painting and the mood of the author at the time it was made.The earliest such work known to us dates from the Yuan Dynasty (1279 AD -1368 AD), and the author of the work is Zhao Mengfu.
\nDong Qichang (1555 AD -1636 AD), a painter, calligrapher and an art theorist, concluded in the 17th century that the landscape painting could be divided into the North and the South School. He described the characteristics specified to both schools, and the differentiator being art, not a geographical or temporal element. When we talk about the traditional Chinese landscape painting we use these divisions even today. However, the most interesting among the traditional painters are the, so called, individualists. They have developed a unique and distinctive style and escape labeling. Once seen, their paintings are impossible to forget, and their characteristic \u2018handwriting\u2019 will be recognized even in the case of paintings that the viewer has not seen before. The most important among the individualistic painters were Bada Shanren (Zhu Da) (about 1626 AD \u2013 l705 AD), the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368 AD -1644 AD) and the early Qing Dynasty (1644 AD -1911 AD), together with Qi Baishi (1864 AD -1957 AD) from the early 20th century.<\/p>\n
There is so much we can say about the historical development of Chinese painting, but still escape the hidden essence of what the Chinese themselves value in their traditional paintings. Given that the most valued kind of the Chinese traditional painting developed from the Chinese calligraphy, what attracts the attention of an observer the most are the strokes. The strokes, or the moves, are, in fact, the main theme of the painting. Direct, unique, incorrigible \u2018touch\u2019 of which testifies the indian ink on porous surfaces, will give us the information (or maybe just an illusion) of what the artist\u2019s intention were, why a picture needed to be painted (or it might tell us more about ourselves). Such perception of a painting is significantly different than ours. In the European painting tradition the way the brush was used, with respect to the most common medium \u2013 oil painting \u2013 was usually not that important. In the foreground was the credibility of the presented forms taking into account the colour of light and the shadow. This is still used today by many professionals, mostly when it comes to research about the authenticity of a work.<\/p>\n
Artists in China are using all sorts of possible materials and art forms, and they are often more imaginative than their colleagues in Europe and America. Today art academies in China offer two different directions of study to its students: painting in the European tradition, where the program is not different from art academies we know, and the Chinese traditional painting where the techniques of the traditional Chinese painting and the Chinese calligraphy are taught.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
[\/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title=”China’s Education” _builder_version=”3.6″ tab_font=”||||||||” body_font=”||||||||” background_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0)”]<\/p>\n
Since 1986, compulsory education in China comprises primary<\/a> and junior secondary school<\/a>, which together last for nine years. In 2010, about 82.5 percent of students continued their education at a three-year senior secondary school. The Gaokao<\/a>, China’s national university entrance exam, is a prerequisite for entrance into most higher education institutions. In 2010, 27 percent of secondary school graduates are enrolled in higher education. This number increased significantly over the last years, reaching a tertiary school enrollment of 48.4 percent in 2016. Vocational education is available to students at the secondary and tertiary<\/a> level.<\/span><\/p>\n In February 2006, the government pledged to provide completely free nine-year education, including textbooks and fees. Annual education investment went from less than US$50 billion in 2003 to more than US$250 billion in 2011. However, there remains an inequality in education spending. In 2010, the annual education expenditure per secondary school student in Beijing totalled \u00a520,023, while in Guizhou<\/a>, one of the poorest provinces in China<\/a>, only totalled \u00a53,204. Free compulsory education in China consists of primary school and junior secondary school between the ages of 6 and 15. In 2011, around 81.4% of Chinese have received secondary education. By 2007, there were 396,567 primary schools, 94,116 secondary schools, and 2,236 higher education institutions in China.<\/span><\/p>\n As of 2010, 94% of the population over age 15 are literate. In 1949, only 20% of the population could read, compared to 65.5% thirty years later. In 2009, Chinese students from Shanghai achieved the world’s best results in mathematics, science and literacy, as tested by the Programme for International Student Assessment<\/a> (PISA), a worldwide evaluation of 15-year-old school pupils’ scholastic performance. Despite the high results, Chinese education has also faced both native and international criticism<\/a> for its emphasis on rote memorization and its gap in quality from rural to urban areas.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title=”Chinese Culture” _builder_version=”3.6″ tab_font=”||||||||” body_font=”||||||||” background_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0)”]<\/p>\n Since ancient times, Chinese culture has been heavily influenced by Confucianism<\/a> and conservative philosophies. For much of the country’s dynastic era, opportunities for social advancement could be provided by high performance in the prestigious imperial examinations<\/a>, which have their origins in the Han dynasty<\/a>. The literary emphasis<\/a> of the exams affected the general perception of cultural refinement in China, such as the belief that calligraphy<\/a>, poetry<\/a> and painting<\/a> were higher forms of art than dancing or drama. Chinese culture has long emphasized a sense of deep history and a largely inward-looking national perspective. Examinations and a culture of merit<\/a> remain greatly valued in China today.<\/span><\/p>\n The first leaders of the People’s Republic of China were born into the traditional imperial order, but were influenced by the May Fourth Movement<\/a> and reformist ideals. They sought to change some traditional aspects of Chinese culture, such as rural land tenure, sexism<\/a>, and the Confucian system of education, while preserving others, such as the family structure and culture of obedience to the state. Some observers see the period following the establishment of the PRC in 1949 as a continuation of traditional Chinese dynastic history, while others claim that the Communist Party’s rule has damaged the foundations of Chinese culture, especially through political movements such as the Cultural Revolution<\/a> of the 1960s, where many aspects of traditional culture were destroyed, having been denounced as “regressive and harmful” or “vestiges of feudalism<\/a>“. Many important aspects of traditional Chinese morals and culture, such as Confucianism, art, literature, and performing arts like Peking opera<\/a>, were altered to conform to government policies and propaganda at the time. Access to foreign media remains heavily restricted.<\/span><\/p>\n Today, the Chinese government has accepted numerous elements of traditional Chinese culture as being integral to Chinese society. With the rise of Chinese nationalism<\/a> and the end of the Cultural Revolution, various forms of traditional Chinese art, literature, music, film, fashion and architecture have seen a vigorous revival, and folk and variety art in particular have sparked interest nationally and even worldwide. China is now the third-most-visited country in the world<\/a>, with 55.7\u00a0million inbound international visitors in 2010. It also experiences an enormous volume of domestic tourism<\/a>; an estimated 740 million Chinese holidaymakers travelled within the country in October 2012 alone.<\/span><\/p>\n Literature<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Chinese literature is based on the literature of the Zhou dynasty<\/a>. Concepts covered within the Chinese classic texts<\/a> present a wide range of thoughts<\/a> and subjects including calendar<\/a>, military<\/a>, astrology<\/a>, herbology<\/a>, geography<\/a> and many others. Some of the most important early texts include the I Ching<\/em><\/a> and the Shujing<\/em><\/a> within the Four Books and Five Classics<\/a> which served as the Confucian authoritative books for the state-sponsored curriculum in dynastic era. Inherited from the Classic of Poetry<\/em><\/a>, classical Chinese poetry<\/a> developed to its floruit during the Tang dynasty. Li Bai<\/a> and Du Fu<\/a> opened the forking ways for the poetic circles through romanticism and realism respectively. Chinese historiography<\/a> began with the Shiji<\/em><\/a>, the overall scope of the historiographical tradition in China is termed the Twenty-Four Histories<\/a>, which set a vast stage for Chinese fictions along with Chinese mythology<\/a> and folklore<\/a>. Pushed by a burgeoning citizen class in the Ming dynasty<\/a>, Chinese classical fiction rose to a boom of the historical, town and gods and demons fictions<\/a> as represented by the Four Great Classical Novels<\/a> which include Water Margin<\/em><\/a>, Romance of the Three Kingdoms<\/em><\/a>, Journey to the West<\/em><\/a> and Dream of the Red Chamber<\/em><\/a>. Along with the wuxia<\/a> fictions of Jin Yong<\/a> and Liang Yusheng<\/a>, it remains an enduring source of popular culture in the East Asian cultural sphere<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n In the wake of the New Culture Movement<\/a> after the end of the Qing dynasty, Chinese literature embarked on a new era with written vernacular Chinese<\/a> for ordinary citizens. Hu Shih<\/a> and Lu Xun<\/a> were pioneers in modern literature. Various literary genres, such as misty poetry<\/a>, scar literature<\/a>, young adult fiction<\/a> and the xungen literature<\/a>, which is influenced by magic realism<\/a>, emerged following the Cultural Revolution. Mo Yan<\/a>, a xungen literature author, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n Cuisine<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Chinese cuisine is highly diverse, drawing on several millennia of culinary history and geographical variety, in which the most influential are known as the “Eight Major Cuisines”, including Sichuan<\/a>, Cantonese<\/a>, Jiangsu<\/a>, Shandong<\/a>, Fujian<\/a>, Hunan<\/a>, Anhui<\/a>, and Zhejiang<\/a> cuisines. All of them are featured by the precise skills of shaping, heating, colorway and flavoring. Chinese cuisine is also known for its width of cooking methods<\/a> and ingredients, as well as food therapy<\/a> that is emphasized by traditional Chinese medicine<\/a>. Generally, China’s staple food is rice in the south, wheat based breads and noodles in the north. The diet of the common people in pre-modern times was largely grain and simple vegetables, with meat reserved for special occasions. And the bean products, such as tofu<\/a> and soy milk<\/a>, remain as a popular source of protein. Pork is now the most popular meat in China, accounting for about three-fourths of the country’s total meat consumption. While pork dominates the meat market, there is also pork-free Buddhist cuisine<\/a> and Chinese Islamic cuisine<\/a>. Southern cuisine, due to the area’s proximity to the ocean and milder climate, has a wide variety of seafood and vegetables; it differs in many respects from the wheat-based diets across dry northern China. Numerous offshoots of Chinese food, such as Hong Kong cuisine<\/a> and American Chinese food<\/a>, have emerged in the nations that play host to the Chinese diaspora<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_tab][\/et_pb_tabs][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ next_background_color=”#ffffff” admin_label=”Hero Section” _builder_version=”3.6″ use_background_color_gradient=”on” background_color_gradient_start=”rgba(0,153,51,0.71)” background_color_gradient_end=”rgba(183,183,183,0.39)” background_color_gradient_type=”radial” background_color_gradient_direction_radial=”top left” background_color_gradient_overlays_image=”on” background_image=”http:\/\/konfucij.ukim.edu.mk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/fhhvm.jpg” custom_margin=”|||” custom_padding=”0||0||false|false” bottom_divider_style=”asymmetric2″ animation_style=”fade”][et_pb_row make_fullwidth=”on” custom_padding=”0|0px|58px|0|false|false” _builder_version=”3.6″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” module_alignment=”center”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Title” _builder_version=”3.6″ text_font=”Quattrocento||||||||” text_font_size=”22px” text_line_height=”2em” header_font=”Quattrocento|||on|||||” header_text_align=”center” header_font_size=”85px” header_font_size_tablet=”40px” header_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet” header_line_height=”0.7em” text_orientation=”center” background_layout=”dark” max_width=”800px” module_alignment=”center” animation_style=”slide” animation_direction=”top” animation_intensity_slide=”3%” animation_starting_opacity=”100%”] [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.6″ text_font=”Roboto|||on|||||” text_text_color=”rgba(234,234,234,0.74)” text_font_size=”50px” text_letter_spacing=”10px” header_font=”Roboto|500|||||||” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/konfucij.ukim.edu.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1987"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/konfucij.ukim.edu.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/konfucij.ukim.edu.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/konfucij.ukim.edu.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/konfucij.ukim.edu.mk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1987"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/konfucij.ukim.edu.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2818,"href":"http:\/\/konfucij.ukim.edu.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1987\/revisions\/2818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/konfucij.ukim.edu.mk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}