Pre-Qin paintings have been recorded in some ancient books, such as historical figures in palaces, halls and temples in the Zhou Dynasty, lacquerware and bronze decorations in the Warring States period, and silk paintings unearthed in the State of Chu, all of which have reached a high level.
Qin and Han Dynasties were a centralized power in the early history of China, with a vast territory and strong national strength. The Silk Road has communicated the artistic exchanges between China and foreign countries, and the painting art has developed and prospered unprecedentedly. Especially in the Han Dynasty, heavy burial prevailed, and its tomb murals, portrait bricks, portrait stones and silk paintings with burial vividly shaped realistic, historical and mythical characters, which were dynamic and plot-like, and made great achievements in reflecting real life. His painting style is often bold and bold, with flowing brushwork, rough and bold, fine and magnificent, rich in content and colorful in form.
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, wars were frequent and people's livelihood was poor, but painting still made great progress. Suffering provided the soil for Buddhism to spread, and Buddhist art rose with great enthusiasm. For example, Qizil Grottoes in Xinjiang, Maijishan Grottoes in Gansu and Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang have preserved a large number of murals of this period, and their artistic attainments are extremely high. Due to the love and participation of the upper class in painting, besides craftsmen, a number of well-known upper class painters emerged, such as Gu Kaizhi. Metaphysics prevailed in this period, literati advocated elegance and freedom, painting history, painting theory and other works began to appear, and landscape painting and flower-and-bird painting began to sprout. Paintings in this period paid attention to the depiction of mental state and the expression of temperament, and paintings with literature as the theme became increasingly popular.
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, national unity, relatively stable society, relatively prosperous economy and active foreign exchanges injected new opportunities into the art of painting. In terms of figure painting, although Western painting style is still popular in Buddhist murals, Wu Daozi, Zhou Fang and others' works with distinctive Central Plains painting style have an absolute advantage, and their national styles are becoming more and more mature. The landscape paintings and flower-and-bird paintings of Zhan Ziqian, Li Sixun, Wang Wei and Zhang Yong are neat and rich, and have achieved good results.
In China, the authenticity of painting reached its peak in the Song Dynasty in the12nd century, especially Guo's "Early Spring Picture" was the peak of realism, and then he began to express his subjective interest. Since Wang Wei was praised for painting in poetry and poetry in painting, the long tradition of literati painting has continued to this day. Since the Northern Song Dynasty, China's paintings have gradually paid attention to the formalism of pen and ink interest. For example, Wen Zhiming's painting is not to depict the scenery, but to accumulate various brushstrokes through the scenery. By the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty in the15th century, painters had begun to express themselves without paying attention to the description of the objective world. Instead, Badashanren, Yangzhou Baguai, Ren Bonian and Wu Changshuo all have strong self-styles, and no longer care about the authenticity of nature. Modern painters such as Qi Baishi and Zhang Daqian show their demeanor. Their paintings are not necessarily true, but no one can imitate the essence of their paintings!