Horse painted by Xu Beihong

The roots of Chinese painting can be traced back to paintings on Neolithic pottery, such as figures of fish, frogs, deer, birds, flowers, tree leaves and dances, 6,000-7,000 years old. The earliest Chinese characters were pictographs. Since similar tools and lines were used for the earliest painting and writing, painting is said to have the same origin as calligraphy. Thus, Chinese painting has an outstanding characteristic, that is to say, poetry or calligraphy are inscribed on paintings so that the three are integrated, giving people a keener enjoyment of beauty.

peony painting by Jin Wanshan

Many ancient Chinese paintings were executed on walls or decorative screens. Today, murals can be seen in the tombs of the Han, Tang and other dynasties. The Tang and Song dynasties were the golden age of Chinese painting. Figure, landscape, and flower-and-bird painting are main genres of t traditional Chinese painting. By the mid-Tang dynasty, landscape and flower-and-bird paintings began their rise to prominence. Contemporary painters have specialties. Some only paint figures of ladies, and some only paint animals, or even one kind of animal.

Modern China has also made great progress in Western-style painting. Many Chinese painters have created works that combine traditional Chinese painting techniques with those of the West, adding splendor to Chinese painting.