Unit 1　Art

landscapethe art of landscape painting formed the central and most standing tradition in chinese painting.on a basis of taoist communion with nature and strengthened by buddhism，there was a strong literary tradition of seclusion among，and meditation upon the forests，streams and mountains.china's landscape painting brought nature's presence to wherever man desired it.elements of landscape are already present in art of the han dynasty，but development did not really begin until the tang dynasty.the succeeding northern sung dynasty(960－1127)has often been called the golden age of chinese landscape.the differences in approach and technique that naturally appeared became gradually categorized into traditions：the northern and southern schools.birds and flowersin the tang dynasty at least one painter，tiao kuang－yin，was already known as a specialist in birds and flowers.however，the first two important names in bird and flower painting，huang chuan and hsu hsi，occur in the 10th century.huang chuan，a subject of the latter shu dynasty，inherited the traditions of the tang dynasty.his paintings of flowers and birds were in an accordingly archaic style，with strict conventions and conservative attention to careful realism.hsu his，who lived under the southern tang dynasty created the “boneless” mo－ku style in which forms are built up with pale washes and outlines are not used.his inspirations were unrestrained and the school he initiated was considered much the more creative.mi fu，the leading literati critic of the 11th century remarked that ten paintings by huang chuan were not worth one by hsu hsi.later bird and flower painters generally belonged to either the huang or the hsu tradition.stones and bamboostones and bamboo originally appeared as background objects in other types of paintings but gradually evolved into a separate genre.the 10th century southern tang ruler li hou－chu developed a trembling brush technique in calligraphy that was also particularly suitable for painting bamboo and rocks.tang hsi－ya，an artist of the same time，adapted it for that purpose.in the following sung dynasty，the painting of bamboo became more and more popular and many famous scholars such as wen t'ung and su shih were also well known for their paintings of bamboo.