Chinese painting, referred to as "Chinese painting", is one of the traditional plastic arts in China. It has its own system in the field of world art. It can be roughly divided into: figures, landscapes, boundary paintings, flowers, melons and fruits, feathers, animals, insects, fish and so on. There are techniques such as meticulous brushwork, freehand brushwork, sketching, color setting and ink painting, and color setting can be divided into resplendent, large and small, turquoise, boneless, splash color, light color and shallow drop. Mainly use the changes of lines and ink color to describe the image and business place with hook, dot, dye, thick, light, dry, wet, yin, yang, direction, back, virtual, real, sparse, dense and empty; View layout, wide field of vision, not limited to focus perspective. There are murals, screens, scrolls, picture albums, fans and other picture frames, supplemented by traditional mounting techniques. Figure painting gradually matured from the late Zhou Dynasty to the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties. Mountains and rivers, flowers, paintings of birds and animals, etc. It was not until the Sui and Tang Dynasties that an independent painting discipline was formed. In the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty, various schools of thought competed for each other, and a generation of ink painting became popular, and landscape painting became a major branch. Literati painting developed in the Song Dynasty, but in the Yuan Dynasty, the style of painting was more expressive. Ming and Qing dynasties and modern times continued to develop, paying more and more attention to expressing ideas and smoothing the mind. Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Tang Dynasty and Ming and Qing Dynasties were successively influenced by Buddhist art and western painting art.. Traditional Chinese painting emphasizes that "nature is created by foreign teachers, and the state of mind is the best", that "it means to save the pen first, and to paint as best as possible", and that it emphasizes blending things with nature and creating artistic conception, so as to achieve the purpose of describing the spirit with form, having both form and spirit, and vivid charm. Because calligraphy and painting are of the same origin, they are closely related to the operation of bone and line, so the seal cutting of calligraphy and painting affects each other and forms a remarkable artistic feature. The tool materials for painting are pens, ink, paper, inkstone and silk specially made in China. Modern Chinese painting has made a breakthrough and development in inheriting tradition and absorbing foreign techniques.

The three artistic peaks in the ancient world were the prosperous Tang Dynasty in Africa, Greece and China in Europe. Although the land spans three continents, the artistic expression forms are different, but the three are in the same spirit, and they are all oriented to real life and art that comes out of life. Since then, African art has not developed and changed much, and has always maintained a primitive, simple and natural style. European art crossed the Greek era and was bound by theological spirit, and painting once went to death. However, the humanistic spirit of the Renaissance saved painting from death and made it return to the world from the altar, and humanity became the theme of painting. Qi Wei, a painter of the Tang Dynasty in China, is famous for his great success. Lin Fengmian praised him in the New Theory of Chinese Painting, which he studied abroad for many years: "The painting style of this era is purely free, lively, personalized and personalized because of the description of nature. Early as Gu Kaizhi style, meticulous and elegant; Wu Dai of Wu Daozi was in the wind, and it is especially conceivable that his style at that time was detached. " China's paintings have gone through the prosperous Tang Dynasty and entered a more complicated situation. The separation of mountains and rivers, flowers and birds and figure paintings has a confusing landscape. However, after the Five Dynasties, the Song Dynasty, the Yuan and Ming Dynasties and the Qing Dynasty lasted for more than 200 years. Although there were many painting schools, they were like withered flowers, and spring ceased, without even a trace of light.

If we look at it separately, the painting in the Tang Dynasty, like literature, has reached a mature stage. The figure paintings in the early Tang Dynasty were represented by Li Ben and Li Deyan. After Kaiyuan, Wu Daozi Painting School swept the whole painting world, and later painters such as Zhang Xuan and Zhou Fang all took him as their teacher. In particular, the ladies in their works, whether advocating thinness in the early Tang Dynasty or pursuing fatness after the middle Tang Dynasty, are elegant and graceful. Even the forms that are difficult to convey, such as face, limbs, muscles and clothes, are simple and vivid, and have a cordial atmosphere. From their unique observation, it shows that this comes from life. In the Song Dynasty, some painters turned to the subtle aspect, while others turned to the bold aspect. Implicit, realistic scope, dynamic performance is not as good as that of the Tang Dynasty, and the gas is small; Bold, honest and frank and broad-minded people can spread to the Ming Dynasty, although they are clear and refreshing, and their body movements are full of extroversion. Although their influence is like a flood, it will soon end. The ladies in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties were all small noses and eyes, completely divorced from human nature, and only made a living from old paper.

There were famous landscape painters in the Tang Dynasty, such as General Li, General Wu Daozi, etc., but their paintings are all gone, so we can't comment on them. The ancient landscape cars we can see first appeared in Fan Kuan in the north and Dongyuan in the south of the Yangtze River. Fan Kuan's brushwork is pale and healthy, and he is good at writing folding mountains before, which profoundly shows the qualitative side of mountains. Magnificent, it is a real feeling, as if the peaks and walls are really in front of him. Dong Yuan School of Painting, without steep mountains and clever decoration, is a real Jiangnan scenery. The landscape painting in the Southern Song Dynasty changed its direction, and it was simple, empty and simple to the depicted object. The Yuan Dynasty inherited the legacy of the Northern Song Dynasty. Although Huang had a real experience of Fuchun Mountain and Yushan Mountain, and Wang Meng also described Mount Tai in the field, the clay figurines' mood far exceeded their concern for truth. Their pen and ink rarely go out of the real realm, but blindly seek their own life from the techniques of their predecessors. Ni Zan showed a negative style, putting the real image in a supporting role, but showed inexhaustible pen and ink. This trend has always influenced the Ming and Qing dynasties, but only accepted the techniques of predecessors, and the main idea of painting was gradually forgotten. Most of them are peeled, and the so-called new look is only produced by peeling, and I don't know the truth. From Dong in the Ming Dynasty to the "Sixth Hospital" in the early Qing Dynasty, they took the same road, which lasted for five or six hundred years. However, Daoji and Shang Shitao did not accept the infection, and made great contributions to the innovation of landscape painting, showing the independent spirit of the environment at that time.

Flowers also existed as supporting characters at the beginning, and gradually developed independently from the Tang Dynasty. Yin Zhongke's flower-and-bird paintings in Tang Dynasty, Wu Daozi's Zhu Mo, Li Longji and Xiao Yue were also experts in flower and bird painting, but no works have been circulated in the world. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Huang Quan, Huang Jucheng Zu, Xu Xi and Xu Chongsi, grandparents and grandchildren of the Southern Tang Dynasty, all advocated true sketching, although their painting styles were different. Since then, China's flower-and-bird painting has been developing on the realistic road. There are also many masters of flower and bird painting among the emperors and princes. Li Yu, the queen of Southern Tang Dynasty, created the posture of "Jin Cuodao". Evonne, Emperor of Hui Zong in Song Dynasty, led the Painting Academy and engaged in sketch research. In particular, ink and flower painters are masters throughout the ages. Whether meticulous or bold, the style they pursue is gentle, delicate, pen and ink, and harmonious. " This in turn affected landscapes and figures, forming the so-called "literati painting" and "literati painting" at that time. With the vicissitudes of history, the change of dynasties, the rise of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties, the yearning for the motherland and the pursuit of metaphysics, painting gradually left the fireworks of the world, expressing ethereal and detached feelings only with a sense of brushwork and ink interest, while forgetting the basic biological feelings of human beings. Painters just beat around the bush in traditional customs, instead of going deep into nature like the ancients. Although they have the desire to return to the noble charm of the ancients, they lack the basic sense of life aroused by nature, and the picture is bound to become more and more dry, fragile and empty.

Since the Ming Dynasty, there have been many innovators in painting, such as Chen Daofu and Xu Wei in the Ming Dynasty. Chen's energy focuses on her charming charm and flowing interest. Her brushwork is clear, and Mo Yun's beautiful description creates an artistic conception. Xu He's attention focused on the dissipation of interest, the flood of ink and wash, and the naked pen dancing like a snake spear, which made the drunkard sing loudly, making his birthday unrestrained and shocking. In the early Qing Dynasty, Zhu Da and Dao Ji were both blood relatives of the Ming Dynasty, who died in the Ming Dynasty and entered the Qing Dynasty. Zhu Da uses a bald pen, which is dignified and mellow, looks simple and elegant, and has a particularly subtle mood. The fish and birds in his works highlight exaggerated descriptions. Enhanced the unique agility, stubbornness and creativity beyond ordinary people's imagination. Dao Ji leads the innovation movement in an all-round way, from landscape to flowers. Zhu Da and Tao Ji are the birth of new life and the pioneering works of the previous generation. Yangzhou Eight Eccentrics also tried to innovate on the basis of their predecessors, but the former one was a road of failure.

As can be seen from this simple historical narrative. From the Ming Dynasty, people of insight felt that China's paintings were going downhill. Since the Qing dynasty, this decline has sent Chinese painting to the end of the road. Although there are people who are determined to innovate, they cannot turn the tide.

From the Song Dynasty to the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties in 600, it was staged by Lin Fengmian in the third transitional era. He wrote in the New Theory of Chinese Painting: "The result of the third era is unknown, but in this long darkness, the direct and urgent dispute between the old and new ideological trends is uncertain."

At the beginning of the 20th century, China was in a turbulent era with many advantages and disadvantages, and it was also an era of creating opportunities. In this era, the political revolution has reached a new milestone, culture has also been impacted unprecedentedly, and society has changed in pain. The chaos of the alternation of the old and the new should highlight the birth of genius. Culturally, the new culture movement with vernacular Chinese as the main body has produced many new literary heroes, and the innovation movement of Chinese painting has inspired first-class painting wisdom and produced many painters who serve as a link between the past and the future. Zhao, Xu Gu, Pu Hua, Ren Bonian, Wu Changshuo, etc. entered the painting world one after another, which made the traditional painting in decline in generate shine brilliantly. However, the slow social evolution has restricted the development of art. Although they have created, they are only a continuation of the tradition of literati painting and cannot stop the continuous decline of Chinese painting. Although Huang's "true mountains and true waters" and Qi Baishi's "folk flavor" injected a little blood into Chinese painting and made the old form glow with new brilliance, they could not fundamentally change the fate of the decline of Chinese painting.

It is the general trend to choose a brand-new road for the innovation of Chinese painting.

In this way, we find that on the way to break through the tradition, those who hold different flags from the above are drawing lessons from western painting. The modernization of Chinese painting can be realized by combining oil painting watercolor with China's painting with novel techniques. Chinese painting has taken a tortuous road to learn from the west. Gao, Zeng and Zeng studied in Japan and learned the techniques of western painting from Japanese painting. Because Japan came into contact with the west earlier than China, Japanese painting also spread to the west, which led westerners to think that Japanese painting represented oriental style, or Chinese painting, which was a misunderstanding. Although there were several European painters as court painters from Kangxi's later years to Yongzheng Qianlong's three generations, such as Italian Lang Shining, French Wang Zhicheng and ignatius Szicher Bart, their activities were limited to the court and did not go deep into the people, so they did not have much influence on China's paintings.

After the Revolution of 1911, people began to pay attention to absorbing western culture because of the leadership of the government. In terms of art, Cai Yuanpei is lucky. He tried to advocate a new artistic trend of thought and encouraged and helped China people to study in Europe. However, in the early years of the Republic of China, Europe was in the period of World War I, and it was extremely inconvenient for Zhao and most European countries to study in France. Li Chaoshi (19 1 1 went to France, 19 19 returned to China) and (went to France to study as a child) were the first batch of artists, followed by Lin Fengmian, Xu Beihong and Pan. Later, artists influenced by Lin Fengmian and Xu Beihong came to Paris in the late 1920s, such as Wang (who went to France in 1926) and Wang Linyi (both went to France in 1929). Zhou Gui, Tang, Zhuang Ziman, Lu (all went to France in 1930), and Chang Shuhong, Situqiao, Zhang, Chen, Si, Hua Tianyou and Pang Xunqin all went to France to study at this time.

History has proved that among many artists who study law, many are talented painters, who have painted some works that occupy a certain position in the world art history. But only Lin Fengmian and Xu Beihong created a new painting art in China. They also defined their respective tasks. Lin Fengmian wants to integrate Chinese and western art and create a brand-new art; Xu Beihong's purpose is to transform Chinese painting with the techniques of western painting and make it look brand-new.

During his study abroad, Lin Fengmian formed the idea of "reconciling Chinese and Western painting" because he saw through China's traditional painting. He thought: what has painting created in the past 600 years? Compared with the previous generation, it's really nothing. In the history of painting, there is no gain, which is really a big loss. All you get is to follow the tradition and imitate your predecessors. Can this painting, which came from the "dark period" and lost its life, be transformed into a new life with just a shot in the arm?