As for the future of Chinese painting, I believe it, as an ancient painting, will gradually die out with the narrowing of ethnic differences and the internationalization of cultural life, just like other regional paintings. However, the process of extinction is probably longer than we thought. Moreover, this process of extinction is not a process from existence to nothingness, but a process of transforming this thing into something else. At present, the complementary structure of world culture still needs it, and this worldwide and historic need is the potential of Chinese painting development.

The first chapter is the historical development of Chinese painting.

The development and evolution of Chinese painting can be divided into the following periods:

1. The preliminary formation of national painting style in the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties

During the Warring States period, there was a kind of painting on silk fabrics-silk painting, and before that, there were primitive rock paintings and painted pottery paintings. These early paintings laid the foundation for later Chinese paintings to take lines as the main modeling means.

2. The development stage of painting in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties

During the Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the society changed sharply from stability to division, and the impact and integration of foreign culture and local culture made the painting in this period mainly religious painting, and the depiction of local historical figures and literary works also accounted for a certain proportion. Landscape painting and flower-and-bird painting also germinated at this time. At the same time, I consciously grasped painting in theory and put forward certain evaluation criteria. For example, Zhang Sengyou, a painter in the Southern Dynasties, put forward the concepts of "the brushwork is just one or two, how should the image be" and "the brushwork is incomplete, but the meaning is not enough", and his paintings absorbed the smudge method of Tianzhu, forming the style characteristics of "Zhang Jia style". In the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Cao's "thick body and tight clothes" absorbed the characteristics of India's Gupta Buddha-making, and had the style characteristics of Cao clothes coming out of the water, forming the "Cao family style". At this time, figure painting began to emphasize charm and pay attention to the description of characters' spiritual temperament. Taking the six methods in Sheikh's On Painting as the main aesthetic norm, it transcends the tradition of pursuing both form and spirit, and lays a development path for later paintings. This pursuit of similarity and charm is the expression of Chinese painting images and freehand brushwork.

The Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties were the heyday of painting.