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The Development and Evolution of China Fine Arts
China's architectural art is a plastic art with the longest history, the widest geographical distribution and a special style system in the world architectural history. On the cultural level, China's ancient architectural art shows three characteristics: paying attention to the high unity of aesthetics and political ethics; It has a distinctive humanistic character and is a concentrated expression of the spirit of China's traditional culture. Pay attention to the overall overall spatial image in various changes.

Its formal characteristics are as follows: ① Most of them form a rich spatial sequence in the form of group combination. For example, altars and temple buildings are spread out on the horizontal axis; Residential buildings and palace buildings with vertical axis as the main axis and horizontal axis as the secondary axis; Landscape architecture with zigzag axis. No matter which way it unfolds, it forms a cadence, orderly, climax and ending spatial order. ② There are certain norms and procedures for single building modeling. Such as temples, pavilions, corridors and other shapes are all composed of abutment, house body and roof, and there is a certain proportion between each part, especially in the Qing Dynasty, this standardization reached the extreme. (3) The huge roof formed by the combination of wood structures and beams, as well as the soft curve of the top of the slope, the straight roof and the upturned cornices, make the roof the most remarkable form feature of China architecture. ④ Indoor space handling is flexible and changeable. Commonly used partitions, fans, curtains, screens, antique shelves, etc. are divided into changeable spaces of different sizes, resulting in pedantic and implicit spatial images. ⑤ Pay attention to the color of building components and the expression of decorative paintings. And use this to mark the difference between grades and functions.

According to the time series, China's architectural art can be divided into four stages: Qin and Han Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, Ming and Qing Dynasties and modern times.

(1) Qin and Han dynasties. As early as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the main features of China architecture, such as quadrangle form, symmetrical layout, wooden beam frame structure, single shape and wide roof, were initially formed. However, due to the separatist regime, the north and the south were different. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, with the centralization and unification of politics, architectural styles tended to be unified. It is characterized in that the squares in the city are graded and closed with high walls. Palaces and mausoleums are mostly tall terraced buildings, among which single buildings are huge in scale, mostly spread with cross axes, and decorated with exaggerated, intricate and colorful sculptures and paintings. The layout is neat and neat, and the connotation of ethics, rank and order is clear, showing a rich and simple style.

② Sui and Tang Dynasties. At the end of Han Dynasty, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, with the introduction and prevalence of Buddhism, the great integration of the northern and southern nationalities, the ideological interest of literati living in seclusion in the mountains and the appearance of landscape poems and paintings, the architectural art in the Southern and Northern Dynasties added a lot of romantic feelings besides the traditional rational spirit. By the end of the Tang Dynasty, the prosperous Tang style was finally formed, which was intertwined with rationality and romance. Magnificent and regular capital, magnificent and continuous palaces and temples, large and diverse temple towers and grottoes, with rich modeling and gorgeous decoration, present broad and beautiful style characteristics.

③ Ming and Qing dynasties. After the development of urban economy in the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty and the further blending of local culture and even Mongolian and Tibetan Arab culture, China's ancient architectural art reached its most mature stage in the Qing Dynasty in the18th century. The specifications of urban streets and lanes are square, and the buildings of palaces and tombs are the same, but the shapes are increasing day by day, the techniques are diverse, and the gardening art is unprecedentedly prosperous. Its overall style is graceful, elegant, rigorous and clear.

④ Modern stage. With the disintegration of feudal system, the spread of western culture to the east, the development of modern social science and technology, and the changes of modern people's aesthetic taste and cultural psychology, great changes have taken place in China architecture in the 20th century. In traditional garden architecture, the proportion of buildings increases, the space is more tortuous and changeable, and the decoration is more complicated and beautiful. A large number of Chinese and western public buildings have emerged, paying more attention to the unity of practical and aesthetic functions. After the 1980s, the overall urban layout became more open and changed more rapidly. The styles are richer and more diverse, and it will be an important subject for modern architecture in China to find the organic combination of the times style and the national style. Ancient sculptures are mainly mausoleum sculptures, religious sculptures and folk sculptures. The peak of its development was from Qin and Han Dynasties to Sui and Tang Dynasties. After the 20th century, influenced by western culture, large-scale memorial sculptures and easel sculptures appeared.

The original sculptures in China are mainly pottery sculptures of human and various animal images, as well as carvings of stones, bones and jade materials. Most of the characters are decorations attached to practical items. Most of them are formed by pinching, sticking and stabbing, which is random and simple and naive. However, it can be seen from the headshots and fragments found at Hongshan Culture site in Niuheliang, Liaoning Province that primitive ancestors had primitive carving methods such as wooden frame support and layered mud application 5000 years ago. Sculpture works in Shang and Zhou Dynasties were mainly bronze casting. The bronze ritual vessels of the Shang Dynasty are peculiar in shape and full of mystery and deterrence. After the Western Zhou Dynasty, its style tended to be realistic and rational. In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it became rich and colorful. In the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, in addition to ritual vessels, there were some practical bronzes, stone carvings, bone carvings and jade carvings, such as the brackets and bases of vessels, or figures or animals with clever shapes and fine workmanship.

In addition, a group of bronze portraits unearthed in Sanxingdui, Guanghan, Sichuan, are huge in shape and exaggerated in image, which is obviously different from the remains of the Central Plains and can provide a glimpse of ancient Bashu culture. Sculptures in the Qin and Han Dynasties flourished unprecedentedly. The most typical one is the terracotta warriors and horses sculpture group of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum. Its forming method is a combination of die pressing and manual forming. After the clay tire is molded, it is fired in a kiln and painted. It has a huge volume, a large number, a real image and a shocking artistic charm. In the Han Dynasty, the heavy burial style produced many sculptures of animal figurines and figures, which were simple in shape, exaggerated in expression and dynamic. The stone carvings of large animals in front of the tomb of Huo Qubing, a famous Western Han Dynasty, are concise and summarized, showing the beauty of great power in richness. With the prevalence of Buddhism, Buddha sculpture became the mainstream of sculpture art in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the four grottoes of Yungang, Dunhuang, Longmen and Maijishan were all excavated in this era. Generally speaking, the statues in the Northern Wei Dynasty were influenced by Indian or Western styles in form and style, solemn and simple, and showed the power of Buddha in silence. Buddhist sculptures in the Southern and Northern Dynasties merged with the aesthetic fashion of Han intellectuals, forming a new style of praise and clothing with beautiful bones and clear images. In addition, tombs in the Southern Dynasties are also important sculptures in this period. Among them, the most prominent is the tomb beast, which is huge and has a strange shape.

Sui and Tang Dynasties were the heyday of ancient sculpture in China. Its achievements are first manifested in grotto sculptures, such as the stone carvings of Fengxian Temple in Longmen Grottoes. Its carving techniques are fluent and skillful, creating a completely nationalized modeling style, which not only embodies the broad and vigorous spirit of the times in the Tang Dynasty, but also shows the rich imagination and superb carving skills of the Tang people. Another feature of religious sculptures in Tang Dynasty is the realism and individuality of images. Those Buddhist figures were endowed with the character and appearance of the world. Mausoleum carving, represented by Shishi in Shunling and Liu Jun in Zhaoling, is unpretentious, dynamic and reflects the grandeur of everything. In addition, the most representative of the artistic level of Tang Dynasty figurines is the real and vivid three-color figurines.

The increase of secular themes and the development of realistic style are the main characteristics of sculpture art in Song, Liao and Jin Dynasties. The colorful sculptures of Dazu Grottoes in Sichuan, Jinci in Shanxi, Lingyan Temple in Changqing, Shandong and Shengsi in Jiangsu all vividly show the modality of the world and have a strong realistic color. The statue of Bodhisattva in Xiahuayan Temple in Datong, Liao Dynasty, with graceful posture, subtle charm and gorgeous clothing, has a great legacy of Tang sculpture. In addition, the brick figurines unearthed from the Golden Tomb in Jiaozuo, Henan Province, although small in size, have a strong flavor of life. Sculpture achievements in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties are mainly reflected in sculptures in palaces and gardens, which played an important role in embellishing the world and setting off the atmosphere. In addition, Zhang Mingshan's small clay sculpture with folk life as the theme in Tianjin in the late Qing Dynasty reached a quite high level in realism. After the 20th century, new changes have taken place in the theme, content and style of China sculptures, and a number of sculptors and commemorative realistic sculptures have emerged. Since 1980s, sculpture art has been diversified, environmental sculpture and small-scale sculpture keep pace, and great progress has been made in the exploration of artistic concepts, creative techniques and materials. China's painting has a long history. During the evolution of thousands of years, it not only created various forms, but also formed its own system in painting concepts and expression methods, with unique national characteristics. Traditional Chinese painting mainly uses soft brush and ink, and depicts images with black and white lines and decorative colors. Compared with western traditional painting, it pays more attention to the expression of subjective feelings and the creation of artistic conception. Since the 20th century, China's paintings have gained many lessons from the West and developed in a more diversified way.

China's painting has a long history.

The origin of China's paintings can be traced back to the Neolithic Age about 1 10,000 years ago. The patterns carved on rock walls and animal bones, the patterns painted on pottery, and the shapes of people and animals painted on the ground and walls, although rough and naive, have the basic performance of expressing images in plane space, which can be regarded as the earliest painting art in China. According to records, there were portraits of historical figures in the Zhou Dynasty and large murals in the Spring and Autumn Period. From the bronze decorative patterns, lacquer paintings and silk paintings unearthed from Chu tombs, it can be seen that the characteristics of line modeling have been formed in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The painting art in Qin and Han Dynasties was very developed. There are murals and portraits, historical paintings and supernatural paintings, with diverse themes and different types. At that time, you can see a large number of murals, stone reliefs, brick reliefs, silk paintings, lacquer paintings, etc. Its murals are vivid and concise, and its brushwork is unpretentious, showing a sense of movement, strength and speed in a simple and naive form. Most of its portrait bricks are all kinds of life scenes, with exaggerated and concise shapes and emphasis on overall dynamic description.

Its silk paintings are full of romance. For example, the silk paintings without clothes unearthed from the No.1 Han Tomb in Mawangdui, Hunan Province, are beautifully made, with accurate shapes and smooth and changeable lines. They are still fresh and beautiful when colored with mineral pigments such as stone, bluestone and green. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhist murals flourished unprecedentedly. Dunhuang Mogao grottoes have the largest number of murals and are the most wonderful. The appearance of scroll painting and literati painters such as Gu Kaizhi, Lu Tanwei and Zhang Sengyou marked that China's painting has entered a new stage of being more conscious and rational. Figure painting tends to be mature, and accurate body proportion, beautiful line drawing and in-depth expression portrayal have replaced the characteristics of naivety and dynamic expression in Han Dynasty painting. At the same time, the earliest landscape painting appeared, and China's earliest independent painting theory came into being. Paintings in the Sui and Tang Dynasties were still dominated by religious themes. The prevalence of Buddhism not only provides material conditions and audiences for painters to display their creative talents, but also establishes their social status. Therefore, many painters engaged in the creation of temple murals have greatly improved their artistic level. At the same time, figure painting, which shows the life of the world, is highly prosperous, pushing figure painting from "simple elegance" in the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the realm of "precision". With the rapid development of landscape painting, flowers and birds, ghosts and gods, cattle and horses, houses and so on. It began to become an independent family, and for a time famous artists came forth in large numbers, which made the paintings in the Tang Dynasty colorful.

The painting art in the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty further matured and improved, reaching the peak of ancient painting in China. Temple murals have declined, and secular life, landscapes, flowers and birds have become painters' favorite themes. The educational function of painting has gradually weakened, while the aesthetic, emotional and entertainment functions have received unprecedented attention. The appearance of literati painters makes painting draw nutrition from poetry and pay more attention to poetic expression. More sophisticated and refined in materials, tools and skills. Ink painting is more mature than before, and heavy color painting is more neat and beautiful. Generally speaking, the paintings in Song Dynasty are more delicate, diversified, lyrical and human. The transformation of painting function has also changed the structure of its creation and appreciation. The special situation of intellectuals in Yuan Dynasty and the expansion of literati's painting thought made painting have a turning point and variation of the times. Painting in the Yuan Dynasty was mainly based on scrolls, and more paper was used. Paper can give full play to the function of thirsty pen, thus making brushwork unprecedentedly rich. Compared with Song paintings, paper can better express the various textures of objects and the delicate feelings of artists.

Song people advocated painting with poetry, emphasizing the change of space and taste. Yuan people advocated painting with books and emphasized the sense of form of pen and ink. From the perspective of painting itself, meta-painting has taken a big step towards perfection. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, landscape flower-and-bird paintings were more numerous, while religious paintings and figure paintings declined. There are many schools of landscape painting in Ming Dynasty, which further developed the formal style of traditional painting in China. After the middle of Ming Dynasty, elegance and vulgarity merged. Famous painters set foot in the creation of literary illustrations, New Year pictures and manuscripts, which brought new vitality to the art of painting. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, social contradictions were unprecedentedly acute, and a large number of outstanding painters emerged, such as the Four Painting Monks, the Four Kings and the Eight Jinling Artists. It highlights another peak in China's painting history. During the Qianlong period (1736 ~ 1796), the emergence of Yangzhou School and Maritime School in the late Qing Dynasty made the painting circle in the middle and late Qing Dynasty glow again. The trend of appealing to both refined and popular tastes is more obvious. After the Revolution of 1911, under the impact and influence of western culture, China's paintings are faced with the possibility of multiple choices in concept and value orientation. However, art for life, the general trend of close combination of painting creation and practice has become the mainstream, and realistic painting has gradually occupied the first place. After 1950s, on the basis of the combination of Xu Beihong's painting school and the painting system of the former Soviet Union, painting has brought great development to politics and people. Since 1980s, China's painting has developed towards multi-level and multi-state, and has seen unprecedented prosperity. Writing Chinese characters with a brush is also a unique style in China. Emphasis is placed on creating beautiful rules and structural forms with the agility, frustration, obedience, rigidity, lightness, dryness and wetness of brushwork, so as to express the calligrapher's cultural accomplishment, character and sentiment.

During the evolution of China's calligraphy for thousands of years, the main font forms have been formed, such as seal script, official script, regular script, cursive script and running script. Seal script is a commonly used font in Shang, Zhou and Warring States periods, and it is mostly engraved on Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronzes or bamboo slips, silk scripts, stones and pottery. In the Qin Dynasty, Xiao Zhuan became the unified font used in China. Its knot is round and long, the strokes are symmetrical, the head is hidden and the tail is protected, and it is round and beautiful. Official script prevailed in Han dynasty, with wide and flat font, stretching from left to right, horizontal painting like swallowtail silkworm head, and strong decorative interest. Regular script reached its peak from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, with square font and neat stroke structure. Different styles of regular script works left by calligraphers such as Wang Xizhi, Ou Yangxun, Chu Suiliang, Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan have far-reaching influence on later generations. Cursive script has developed into wild grass through vegetation, with continuous lines and ups and downs like lightning. This book was also very popular in the Tang Dynasty, with Zhang Xu and Huai Su being the most famous. Running script is between cursive script and regular script, which is concise and smooth. It was formed in the Han Dynasty and matured in the Jin Dynasty. Calligraphers of all ages have created their own different styles with running script fonts. China's arts and crafts have a long history and a wide variety. On the one hand, it aims to meet people's practical and aesthetic requirements and is closely related to the material and spiritual life of society; On the other hand, superb manufacturing skills shine with the wisdom of workers in China. therefore

China's arts and crafts have a long history and a wide variety, which is the essence of national culture and the development of national spirit.

There are many kinds of arts and crafts in China, which can be divided into practical arts and crafts and furnishings arts and crafts according to their functions. According to the mode of production, it can be divided into handicraft art and industrial design; According to the social level of production and consumption, it can be divided into folk arts and crafts, palace arts and crafts and literati arts and crafts. According to materials and creative techniques, traditional arts and crafts can be divided into six categories: sculpture, embroidery, weaving, metal, ceramics and lacquerware. Modern technology is divided into indoor environment design, dyeing and weaving design, daily industrial product modeling design, daily ceramic design, commercial art design and book binding design.

The first labor tool made by primitive people can be said to be the far source of arts and crafts in China. From simple tools to stone, jade, bone, tooth carving, sewing, weaving, pottery and other crafts in the Neolithic age, the pursuit and creation of beauty are clearly demonstrated. The most representative are pottery with various shapes and colorful patterns. In Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, gorgeous bronze ritual vessels and exquisite jade articles were the representatives of plastic arts. By the Han Dynasty, bronze modeling still occupied an important position, and the production technology of lacquerware, silk and glazed pottery was quite mature. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the achievements in celadon firing and brocade technology were the most outstanding, and the style tended to be gorgeous. In the Tang Dynasty, the crafts of brocade, ceramics, gold and silver wares and lacquerware developed in an all-round way, and the production level and scale were unprecedented. Richness, luxury and fullness are the style characteristics of craft modeling in Tang Dynasty. Porcelain-making technology flourished in Song and Yuan Dynasties, and porcelain kilns spread all over China. The products of Jun kiln, Ru kiln, Guan kiln, Ge kiln and Ding kiln are the most distinctive.

Elegant shape, crystal clear glaze color, exquisite tire making and world-renowned kiln firing technology. The appearance of capitalism in Ming Dynasty pushed its arts and crafts to a new stage, and all kinds of arts and crafts developed in an all-round way. Its overall style is simple, powerful and solemn. The arts and crafts of the Qing Dynasty far surpassed the previous generation in varieties, forms, techniques and techniques, which can be said to be the peak period of China's ancient arts and crafts. In harmony with the aesthetic taste of the times and the upper class, its style is increasingly carved, refined and complicated. After the 20th century, under the impact of modern industrial civilization, traditional arts and crafts declined, and modern crafts with fresh, bright and concise styles rose rapidly. Especially after the 1980s, China arts and crafts are closely related to modern social culture and people's diversified aesthetic psychology in form and connotation, with unprecedented variety, changeable styles and superb skills. On the one hand, they construct the living environment of modern society, on the other hand, they constantly influence and update people's spiritual pursuit and aesthetic concepts. China's fine arts originated in prehistoric times. In the long historical process, not only the sculpture, painting, craft modeling and other categories have evolved, but also a unique tradition and system different from western art has been formed.

China has a long history of arts and crafts. Neolithic pottery in primitive society can be said to be the earliest handicraft. Since then, bronzes of Shang and Zhou Dynasties, lacquerware of Warring States, silk fabrics of Han and Tang Dynasties, embroidery of Song Dynasty, cloisonne of Ming and Qing Dynasties and porcelain are all extremely exquisite and priceless handicrafts. China's traditional arts and crafts are exquisitely produced and superb in skill, which not only has distinctive national style and local characteristics, but also has rich varieties. Such as: metal crafts, lacquerware, ceramics, weaving, embroidery, etc. China's arts and crafts are the treasures of China's cultural and artistic treasures. They have been going to the world for a long time and have shown their elegance to people all over the world. New Year's picture is a kind of Chinese painting, which began with the ancient "door-god painting". During Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty, it was officially called New Year Pictures, which was a unique painting school in China and an art form loved by rural people in China. Mostly used for posting in the New Year, decorating the environment, with the meaning of wishing the New Year auspicious and festive, hence the name. Traditional folk New Year pictures are mostly made of wood watermarks. The old version of New Year pictures has different names because of different frame sizes and processing methods. The whole painting is called "Palace Tip", three pieces of paper are called "Three Talents" and many detailed processes are called "Painting Palace Tip" and "Painting Three Talents". The colors of gold powder coating are called "Golden Palace Tip" and "Golden Tricks". Products before June are called "green edition", and products after July and August are called "autumn edition".

The names of New Year pictures vary from Beijing to Suzhou, from Zhejiang to Fujian, and from Sichuan to Doufang. Today, New Year pictures are gradually called "New Year pictures" everywhere. New Year pictures are a folk craft for Chinese people to pray for good luck and welcome the New Year, and it is also a folk art expression that carries people's yearning for a better future. Historically, people called New Year pictures "paper paintings", called "painting stickers" in the Song Dynasty and "painting" in the Qing Dynasty. Until the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, scholar Li Guangting wrote in his article: "It is a child's ear to paste New Year pictures after sweeping the house." New Year pictures got their name from this. Traditional New Year pictures are mainly woodcut watermarks, which pursue simple style and lively atmosphere, so the lines are simple and the colors are bright. The content includes flowers and birds, fat children, golden roosters, spring cattle, myths and legends, historical stories and so on. It expresses people's longing for a bumper harvest and a happy life, and has strong national characteristics and local flavor. The four famous "Hometowns of New Year Pictures" in China are Mianzhu New Year Pictures, Suzhou Taohuawu, Tianjin Yangliuqing and Shandong Weifang. New Year pictures made in these places are deeply loved by urban and rural people. The main producing areas are Yangliuqing in Tianjin, Taohuawu in Suzhou and Weifang in Shandong. There are "Moon Brand" New Year pictures in Shanghai, as well as in Sichuan, Fujian, Shanxi, Hebei and even Zhejiang.