Monkey King vs. Er Lang Shen

Monkey King vs. Er Lang Shen is a film produced by Yuan Cheng.

Background

The film features puppet live action, about 30% of the movie, with animated 3D backgrounds and characters.

Story

Based on a few early chapters of classic fantasy novel Journey to the West, the story tells the Monkey King rises against the heaven and has a horrific fight with Er Lang Shen, the nephew of Jade Emperor, who rules the Heaven.

New Year (1924 film)

New Year is a black and white Chinese animation made in 1924 by Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan.

History

It is a cartoon short produced under the "Shanghai Tobacco Company" . The clip was an advertisement. It is very likely that the company was actually the given the time frame and location.

Pigsy Eats Watermelon

Pigsy Eats Watermelon is a chinese animation produced at the Shanghai Animation Film Studio by Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan. It is also referred to as ''"Mr. Pig Eats Watermelon"'' or ''"Zhu Bajie Eats Watermelon"''.

Story

The main character was Zhu Bajie, the Chinese folklore character from the literature Journey to the West. Though the story was considered more of a . The character was used, since pigs were often associated with greed in the culture.

Background

In 1958 Wan Guchan innovated a new and this film was one of the first to utilize the method.

Princess Iron Fan (1941 film)

Princess Iron Fan , is the first feature film. It was directed in Shanghai under difficult conditions in the thick of World War II by Wan Guchan and Wan Laiming and was released on January 1, .

Plot

The story was liberally adapted from the popular Chinese folk tale ''Journey to the West''. Princess Iron Fan is a main character.

Specifically, the film focused on the duel between the Monkey King and a vengeful princess, whose fan is desperately needed to quench the flames that surround a peasant village.

Background

The Wan family twins Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan with their brothers Wan Chaochen and Wan Dihuan were the first animators in China. After the release of their first "real" cartoon, ''Uproar in the Studio'' , they continued to dominate China's animation industry for the next several decades. In the late 1930s, with Shanghai under , they began work on China's first animated film. In 1939 the Wan brothers saw '''' and set the standard in attempting to create a film of equal quality for the nation's honor.

The film took three years, 237 artists and 350,000 to make. Although the Disney influence is apparent in much of the animation, there is also a distinct Chinese flavour in the film - a flavour that would grow much stronger with the Wan brothers' subsequent films in the following decades. Rotoscoping was used extensively to save money, and the eyes of the live actors are often visible in the faces of the animated characters.

By 1940 the film would render past 20,000 frames, using up more than 200 thousand pieces of paper . They shot over of footage. And the final piece would contain of footage which can be shown in 80 minutes. The Wan brothers also invited the following actors and actresses for sound dubbing ,,,,. At the time they were at the Xinhua Film Company animation department since it was the only remaining production company left during the Japanese occupancy period. The manager of the company who help financed the film was Zhang Shankun.

''Princess Iron Fan'' became the first animated feature film to be made in Asia and the 12th worldwide . Upon completion the film was screened by the Chinese union film company.

Influence

Its influences were far-reaching; it was swiftly exported to wartime Japan , inspiring the 16-year-old Tezuka Osamu to become a comics artist and prompting the to commission Japan's own first feature-length animated film, 1945's ''Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors'' .

Shuzhendong Chinese Typewriter

Shuzhendong Chinese Typewriter is the first Chinese animation ever made in 1922 by Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan.

Translations

There are 2 possible translations. The first translation is "Comfortably Raised Eastern Chinese Typewriter", likely a generic marketing name.

The second translation maybe "Comfortable Zhendong Chinese Typewriter" as in the town of Zhendong in the Binhai county located in the Jiangsu . Which happens to be directly north of Shanghai, where the pioneering Wan brothers were doing animation experiments at the time.

History

The black and white advertisement was created for the Shanghai Commercial Press . It was a printing establishment setup in 1902. By 1919 the Wan brothers were experimenting with animation technologies from the US, and this commercial piece is the first known animation with a practical use outside their research.

Snow Kid

Snow Kid is a film produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio. It is also referred to as ''"Snow Child"''.

Story

Story is about a rabbit mother leaving her young rabbit at home alone. At first the young rabbit builts the snow man and they entertain one another. Afterwards the young rabbit fell asleep and accidentally started a fire in the cabin. The snow man saves the rabbit, but sacrifice himself melting in the fire.

VCD

A VCD release was made available in 1996.

Sparkling Red Star

Sparkling Red Star is a film produced by Puzzle Animation Studio Limited.

Background

Sparkling Red Star originated from the same titled novel written by a famous Chinese writer Li Xintian. The novel was remade into a film in the 70’s and has become one of the classic all-time hit in China’s film industry.

Story

The story is set in 1937 against the background of the 's Long March. In Liuxi Village in Jiangxi, an innocent and cheerful child, Pan Dongzi, spent his carefree childhood. But after reaching 10 years of age, he began to experience the sorrows and joys of life's partings and reunions.

Pan's father was a Red Army soldier who was unfortunately captured during fighting against Hu Hansan, a wicked tyrant in the village. He was saved from danger by the Red Guards under the Red Army. Since then, Pan worshiped Xiuzhu, the Captain of Red Guards. The villagers of Liuxi Village also enjoyed a period of happy days under the protection of the Red Guards.

However, good times did not last long. The Red Army had to set off on the Long March, and Pan's father had to go, too. Before father and son parted, Pan's father gave him a red star badge as symbol of encouragement. After his father left, only a few members of the Red Guard were left stationed in Liuxi Village. Hu the traitor, hired a number of cold-blooded killers and returned to Liuxi Village. He occupied Liuxi Village again, and Pan had no choice but to flee with his mother by following the Red Guards.

During a fightback by the Red Guards, Pan's mother sacrificed herself to save everyone else. From that time, Pan grew up experiencing failures and frustrations with neither of his parents by his side. Pan constantly strove to become stronger, and gradually became a tough person. He had changed from a stubborn child into a brave and passionate young man.

The Camel's Dance

The Camel's Dance is a black and white Chinese animation made in by 3 of the Wan brothers. It is considered the first animation with sound in China.

History

The segment is believed to be a technological showcasing of sound from an animation clip. It is unknown if the sound was just music or actual words spoken. The title can also be translated as "Camel Presenting a Dance".

Chinese art

Chinese art has varied throughout its , divided into periods by the ruling dynasties of China and changing technology. Different forms of art have been influenced by great philosophers, teachers, religious figures and even political leaders. Chinese art encompasses fine arts, folk arts and performance arts.

History

Early forms of art in China were made from pottery and jade in the Neolithic period, to which was added bronze in the Shang Dynasty. The Shang are most remembered for their blue casting, noted for its clarity of detail. Early Chinese music and poetry was influenced by the ''Book of Song'', Confucius and the Chinese poet and statesman Qu Yuan. Early Chinese music was based on percussion instruments, which later gave away to string and reed instruments. Chinese furniture began its development around 202 AD, generally made of softwood or bamboo.

In early imperial China, was introduced and was refined to the point that in English the word ''china'' has become synonymous with high-quality porcelain. Around the 1st century AD, Buddhism arrived in China, though it did not become popular until the 4th century. At this point, Chinese Buddhist art began to flourish, a process which continued through the 20th century. It was during the period of Imperial China that calligraphy and painting became highly appreciated arts in court circles, with a great deal of work done on silk until well after the invention of paper.

Buddhist architecture and sculpture thrived in the and Tang dynasty. Of which, the Tang Dynasty was particularly open to foreign influence. Buddhist sculpture returned to a classical form, inspired by Indian art of the Gupta period. Towards the late Tang dynasty, all foreign religions were outlawed to support Taoism.

In the Song Dynasty, poetry was marked by a lyric poetry known as which expressed feelings of desire, often in an adopted persona. Also in the Song dynasty, paintings of more subtle expression of landscapes appeared, with blurred outlines and mountain contours which conveyed distance through an impressionistic treatment of natural phenomena. It was during this period that in painting, emphasis was placed on spiritual rather than emotional elements, as in the previous period. Kunqu, the oldest extant form of Chinese opera developed during the Song Dynasty in Kunshan, near present-day Shanghai. In the Yuan dynasty, painting by the Chinese painter Zhao Mengfu greatly influenced later Chinese landscape painting, and the Yuan dynasty opera became a variant of Chinese opera which continues today as Cantonese opera.

Late imperial China was marked by two specific dynasties: Ming and Qing. Of Ming Dynasty poetry, Gao Qi was acknowledged as the most popular poet of the era. Artwork in the Ming dynasty perfected color painting and color printing, with a wider color range and busier compositions than Song paintings. In the Qing dynasty, Beijing opera was introduced; it is considered the one of the best-known forms of Chinese opera. Qing poetry was marked by a poet named Yuan Mei whose poetry has been described as having "unusually clear and elegant language" and who stressed the importance of personal feeling and technical perfection. Under efforts of masters from the Shanghai School during the late Qing Dynasty, traditional Chinese art reached another climax and continued to the present in forms of the "Chinese painting" . The Shanghai School challenged and broke the literati tradition of Chinese art, while also paying technical homage to the ancient masters and improving on existing traditional techniques.

Contemporary

New forms of Chinese art was heavily influenced by the New Culture Movement, which adopted Western techniques, introduced oil painting and employed socialist realism. The Cultural Revolution would shape Chinese art in the 20th century like no other event in history with the Four Olds destruction campaign. Contemporary Chinese artists continue to produce a wide range of experimental works, multimedia installations, and performance "happenings" which have become very popular in the international art market.

Art market

Today, the market of Chinese art is widely reported to be among the hottest and fastest-growing in the world, attracting buyers all over the world. The ''Voice of America'' reported in 2006 that Modern Chinese art is raking in record prices both internationally and in domestic markets, some experts even fearing the market might be overheating. ''The Economist'' reported that Chinese art has become the latest darling in the world market according to the record sales from Sotheby's and Christie's, the biggest fine-art auction houses. The ''International Herald Tribune'' reported that Chinese porcelains were fought over in the art market as "if there was no tomorrow". A 14th century porcelain vase was easily sold by the Christie's with a staggering ?15.68 million. In terms of buying-market, China recently overtook France becoming the world's third-largest art market, after the United States and the United Kingdom, due to the growing middle-class in the country. Sotheby's noted that Contemporary Chinese art has rapidly changed the Contemporary Asian art world into one of the most dynamic sectors on the international art market.

Types

Maohou

Maohou is a folk art form, and a form of Miniature Art. Artists build miniature sculptures using cicada sloughs and Magnolia buds. An old Beijing artform, Maohou sculpture came into being during the Qing dynasty. Legend has it that a Beijing herbal medicine shopkeeper designed such miniature toys for his son using the two traditional medicine ingredients since he was too poor to buy any toys.

Typical sculpture

The most common Maohou sculptures feature dancing or posturing monkeys, with Magnolia buds used for making its body, cicada torso used for the limbs, and cicada antennae used for the tail. In fact, the original medicine shop initially sold the materials for making Maohou as houliao .

Notable artist

Qiu Yisheng is a folk artist whose Maohou sculptures have brought the art recognition and international media attention. His work Temple Fair in Changdian was displayed at the National Museum of China. His latest project focuses on sculptures of Olympic athletes in commemoration of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Etymology of derivative words

''Maohou monkey'' is a euphemism for a little child in .

Makyoh

The Makyoh is an ancient art that can be traced back to the Han Dynasty . Makyoh were made of copper alloy, usually with an intricate pattern carved or cast on the back and the front polished to a mirror finish. The front looks like a smooth reflecting surface, but when sunlight or other bright light is reflected onto a wall a glowing pattern emerges. Usually the image seen would be the same as the image on the back of the mirror, often an image of the or other focus for meditation. The art later moved to Japan , and after missionaries brought Christianity into Japan in the mid 1500s many mirrors were made with secret images of the Holy Cross or of Christ. Because Christianity was punished at the time, many Christians wore such magic mirror as a secret sign of their faith.

The "magic" of a makyoh comes from fact that, while the mirror's surface appears smooth, the pattern to be projected is held latent within the metal in differential hardening after annealing, and the surface when polished is differentially abraded. This causes parallel light beams to reflect at slightly different angles and form the desired image.

A similar principle is used in a technique known as makyoh topography, which is used to determine the flatness of manufactured materials such as semiconductor wafers.

Liuli Gongfang

Liuli Gongfang or Liuligongfang is Taiwan's only contemporary glass studio devoted to artistic Chinese glassware. Since its establishment in 1987 Liuligongfang has become known in Asia and abroad for its outstanding artistic endeavors and its high standard of craftsmanship.

Liuligongfang was founded in 1987 by actress Loretta Yang and director Chang Yi. Their name refers to ''liuli'', a form of archaic Chinese glasswork; the founders chose to use the word ''liuli'', rather than the common name for glass, ''boli'' , as it sounded more exotic. The founders aimed to revive the art of antique Chinese art glass, whose production had dwindled following the Opium Wars. Yang mortgaged her house and those of all her family members in order to gain start-up capital. People First Party chairman James Soong, during his to mainland China , presented People's Republic of China Hu Jintao with a Liuli Gongfang sculpture ; Hu gave him porcelain in return.

Loretta Hui-Shan Yang

A renowed performing artist in the Taiwan cinema, twice winner of the award for Best Leading Actress at the Golden Horse Awards and winner of the Best Actress prize at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival, the modern Chinese glass artist, Loretta Hui-Shan Yang has brought the beauty of her performances to modern Chinese glass. "Beauty transformed" is how Japanese critics have described the multiple talents of Loretta Hui-Shan Yang. Having committed herself to Chinese glass for more than a decade, she has single handedly rediscovered the technique of cire-perdue glass casting. She has used this technique to create works in a traditional Chinese artistic language that are imbued with a Chinese philosophy of human relationships. Her success in this has established her position among the msters of world glass.

Liuli

"Liuli" means ancient Chinese glass/crystal. It has a lineage stretching back thousands of years, first making its appearance in the 11th century BC. The art of Liuli left an indelible trail throughout Chinese history until the 19th century when China opened its door to imported goods, and effectively stifled traditional artisan skills.

The discovery in 1968 of the tomb of Liu Shun, a nobleman from Man-Chung County in Hopei Province, unearthed the earliest recorded example of pate-de-verre. A glass ear cup was found behind the renowned "jade suit with gold thread." Archaeologists confirumed the glass material was of Chinese origin, indicating the pate-de-verre technique was indeed indigenous to China. This revelation was astounding and engendered in the group of artists a profound sense of mission to revive the artistry embedded in their own ancestry.

Collections around the World

Liuligongfang art works have been exhibited in Taiwan, Japan, Mainland China, Europe, and United States. Several pieces have become part of the permanent collection of some of the most well known museums. Inlucding The Palace Museum, Beijing, Shanghai Fine Arts Museum, Tsui Museum of Art, HongKong, Medicine Buddha Temple in Nara, Japan, The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C., United States, Victoria and Albert Museum in United Kingdom, Bowers Museum in California, United States.

Lacquer

In a general sense, lacquer is a clear or coloured varnish, that dries by solvent evaporation and often a curing process as well that produces a hard, durable finish, in any sheen level from ultra matte to high and that can be further polished as required.

The term ''lacquer'' originates from the Portuguese word for lac, a type of resin excreted from certain insects. Regardless, in modern usage, lac-based varnishes are referred to as shellac, while lacquer refers to other polymers dissolved in Volatile Organic Compounds , such as nitrocellulose and later compounds dissolved in a solvent generally referred to as ''lacquer thinner''.

While both lacquer and shellac are traditional finishes, lacquer is more durable than shellac.

Urushiol-based lacquers

True lacquerwork is Chinese or Japanese in origin. According to ''Encyclop?dia Britannica'', varnish resin derived from a tree indigenous to China, species Toxicodendron vernicifluum, commonly known as the varnish tree . The manufacturing process was introduced into Japan and remained secret for centuries. These lacquers, produce very hard, durable finishes that are both beautiful, and very resistant to damage by water, acid, alkali or abrasion. The active ingredient of the resin is urushiol, a mixture of various phenols suspended in water, plus a few proteins.


Urushiol-based lacquers differ from most other lacquers in that they are slow-drying, water based, and set by oxidation and polymerisation, rather than by evaporation alone. In order for it to set properly it requires humidity and warm temperature. The phenols oxidize and polymerize under the action of an enzyme laccase, yielding a substrate that, upon proper evaporation of its water content, is hard and fairly resistant to mechanical stress. Lacquer skills became very highly developed in India and Asia, and many highly decorated pieces were produced. The process of lacquer application in India is different from China and Japan. There are two types of lacquer: one is obtained from the Rhus tree and the other from an insect. In India the insect lac was once used from which a red dye was first extracted, later what was left of the insect was a grease that was used for lacquering objects. Insect lac was introduced to India from Persia . The fresh resin from the Rhus trees causes urushiol-induced contact dermatitis and great care is required in its use. The Chinese treated the allergic reaction with shell-fish.

The contemporary theory held that from China, knowledge of lacquer technology was introduced to Korea, and from there to Japan. It was believed that Japan had also been using lacquer from ancient times, but the systematic process of application was developed by the Chinese. With the discovery of lacquer ware in Japan dating back to Jōmon period, conflicting theories claim that technology may have been independently developed in Japan. Trade of lacquer objects traveled through various routes to the Middle East. Known applications of lacquer in China included coffins, plates, music instruments and furniture. Lacquer mixed with powdered cinnabar is used to produce the traditional red lacquerware from China.


The trees must be at least 10 years old before cutting to bleed the resin. It sets by a process called "aqua-polymerization", absorbing oxygen to set; placing in a humid environment allows it to absorb more oxygen from the evaporation of the water.

Lacquer yielding trees in Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and Taiwan, called Thitsi, are slightly different; they do not contain urushiol, but similar substances called "laccol" or "thitsiol". The end result is similar but softer than the Chinese or Japanese lacquer. Unlike Japanese and Chinese ''Rhus verniciflua'' resin, Burmese lacquer does not cause allergic reactions; it sets slower, and is painted by craftsmen's hands without using brushes.

Raw lacquer can be "coloured" by the addition of small amounts of iron oxides, giving red or black depending on the oxide. There is some evidence that its use is even older than 8,000 years from archeological digs in China. Later, pigments were added to make colours. It is used not only as a finish, but mixed with ground fired and unfired clays applied to a mould with layers of hemp cloth, it can produce objects without need for another core like wood. The process is called "kanshitsu" in Japan. Advanced decorative techniques using additional materials such as gold and silver powders and flakes were refined to very high standards in Japan also after having been introduced from China. In the lacquering of the Chinese musical instrument, the guqin, the lacquer is mixed with deer horn powder to give it more strength so it can stand up to the fingering.


There are more than four forms of urushiol which is written as thus:


R = ₁₄CH₃ or
R = ₇CH=CH₅CH₃ or
R = ₇CH=CHCH₂CH=CH₂CH₃ or
R = ₇CH=CHCH₂CH=CHCH=CHCH₃ or
R = ₇CH=CHCH₂CH=CHCH₂CH=CH₂ and others.

Nitrocellulose lacquers

Quick-drying solvent-based lacquers that contain nitrocellulose, a resin obtained from the nitration of cotton and other cellulostic materials, were developed in the early 1920s, and extensively used in the automobile industry for 30 years. Prior to their introduction, mass produced automotive finishes were limited in colour, with Japan Black being the fastest drying and thus most popular. General Motors Oakland automobile brand automobile was the first to introduce one of the new fast drying nitrocelluous lacquers, a bright blue, produced by DuPont under their Duco tradename.

These lacquers are also used on wooden products, furniture primarily, and on musical instruments and other objects. The nitrocellulose and other resins and plasticizers are dissolved in the solvent, and each coat of lacquer dissolves some of the previous coat. These lacquers were a huge improvement over earlier automobile and furniture finishes, both in ease of application, and in colour retention. The preferred method of applying quick-drying lacquers is by spraying, and the development of nitrocellulose lacquers led to the first extensive use of spray guns. Nitrocellulose lacquers produce a very hard yet flexible, durable finish that can be polished to a high sheen. Drawbacks of these lacquers include the hazardous nature of the solvent, which is flammable, volatile and toxic; and the handling hazards of nitrocellulose in the lacquer manufacturing process. Lacquer grade of soluble nitrocellulose is closely related to the more highly nitrated form which is used to make explosives.

Acrylic lacquers

Lacquers using resin, a synthetic polymer, were developed in the 1950s. Acrylic resin is colourless, transparent thermoplastic, obtained by the polymerization of derivatives of acrylic acid. Acrylic is also used in , which have the advantage of not needing to be buffed to obtain a shine. Enamels, however, are slow drying. The advantage of acrylic lacquers, which was recognized by General Motors, is an exceptionally fast drying time. The use of lacquers in automobile finishes was discontinued when tougher, more durable, weather and chemical resistant two-component polyurethane coatings were developed. The system usually consists of a primer, colour coat and clear topcoat, commonly known as clear coat finishes. It is extensively used for wooden finishing.

Water-based lacquers

Due to health risks and environmental considerations involved in the use of solvent-based lacquers, much work has gone in to the development of water-based lacquers. Such lacquers are considerably less toxic and more environmentally friendly, and in many cases, produce acceptable results. More and more water-based colored lacquers are replacing solvent-based clear and colored lacquers in underhood and interior applications in the automobile and other similar industrial applications. Water based lacquers are used extensively in wood furniture finishing as well.

Japanning

As Asian and Indian lacquer work became popular in England, France, the Netherlands, and Spain in the 17th century the Europeans developed imitations that were effectively a different technique of lacquering. The European technique, which is used on furniture and other objects, uses varnishes that have a resin base similar to shellac. The technique, which became known as japanning, involves applying several coats of varnish which are each heat-dried and polished. In the this type of lacquering gained a large popular following. In the 19th and 20th centuries this lacquering technique evolved into the handicraft of decoupage.
The English novelist George Eliot mentions a "lacker box" in her novel Silas Marner.

Japanese lacquer

Just as "" is a common name for Chinese ceramic, "Japan" is an old name for Japanese Lacquerware and its European imitations.

Korea lacquer use

Other numerous lacquered objects of similar time scale have been found in Korea. There is growing evidence that various lacquered objects were made and sold throughout the region.

Kingfisher feather art: tian-tsui

For 2,000 years, the Chinese have been using the iridescent blue feathers of kingfisher birds as an inlay for fine art objects and adornment, from hairpins, headdresses, and fans to even panels and screens. While Western art collectors have focused on other areas of Chinese art including porcelain, lacquer ware, sculpture, cloisonné, silk and paintings, kingfisher art is relatively unknown outside of China.

Called ''tian-tsui'' , kingfisher feathers are painstakingly cut and glued onto gilt silver. The effect is like cloisonné, but no enamel was able to rival the electric blue color. Blue is the traditional favorite color in China.

As with most iridescent, electrifying colors in animals such as butterfly wings, the intense color in bird feathers comes not from pigments in the feather itself, but from the way light is bent and reflected back out, much like a prism breaks white light into its spectrum of rainbow colors. These microscopic structures in feathers are called photonic crystals.

The most expensive, commissioned pieces used a species of kingfisher from Cambodia. So great was the export to sate Chinese demand, the trade of feathers may have been a major contributor to the wealth of the Khmer Empire, and used to help fund the construction of the magnificent temples near Siem Reap, Cambodia including Angkor Wat. The finest pieces of kingfisher art were reserved for royalty or high-ranking Chinese government official . Sadly, the usage of kingfisher feathers resulted in the mass slaughter of many kingfisher species.

Kingfisher art as a high art form came to an end during the Chinese revolution in the 1940’s.

K'o-ssu

K'o-ssu is a style of silk tapestry, admired for its lightness and clarity of pattern.

"K'o-ssu" means "cut silk", a name that comes from the appearance of cut threads created by the use of colour in the pictorial designs typical of the style . Unlike continuous weft brocade, in k'o-ssu each colour area was woven from a separate bobbin, making the style both technically demanding and time-consuming.

K'o-ssu first appeared during the Tang Dynasty , and became popular in the Southern Song Dynasty , reaching its height during the Ming dynasty . The style continued to be popular until the early 20th century, and the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1911–12.

Sources and external links

* — ''Encyclop?dia Britannica'' Premium Service

History of the horse in chinese art

The History of the horse in Chinese art



"Horses are the foundation of military power, the great resources of the state but, should this falter, the state will fall"


China was, and still is, a vast agricultural civilization sharing many thousands of miles of ill-defined borders with non-Chinese nomads whose radically different cultures often brought them into conflict with the Chinese.

These inhabitants of northern and Central Asia had far greater resources in terms of numbers of horses and a superb command of equestrian skills.

Although it is known that the Chinese used horses to pull chariots as early as the Shang dynasty , when their enemies began to field mounted warriors around 4th century BC, they had no choice but to train their soldiers as horseman to counter this new threat.

In addition to mastering the art of cavalry warfare, the Chinese also faced the necessity of maintaining their own stables of horses, without which they were highly vulnerable to foreign attack.

The short, stocky Mongolian horse was the main breed used by the Chinese and, although extremely tough and adaptable, they were often outrun by the larger and more powerful breeds favoured by the nomads.

It is widely believed that Emperor Wu of the Western Han dynasty became obsessed with stories coming from the west which told of a breed of horse like no other. This "blood sweating" horse was said to have been raised by barbarians in Ferghana in Central Asia.

Wu dispatched diplomats to Ferghana with much gold but the horses were not offered.

In 104 BC he sent a force to the area with the intention of capturing as many animals as possible so a breeding programme could be started in China. The force was defeated but Wu was determined to acquire what many believed was the "heavenly horse" so a second expedition was dispatched. Although suffering many casualties this force prevailed and, upon returning to China, the "heavenly horse" was finally presented to the Emperor.

The Ferghana horse had arrived in China.

Through careful breeding and masterful training the Ferghana horse soon became the favoured breed in China not only for military use but also for the Royal Court and the upper-classes. Simply, the more horses you owned the higher your status.

It was now that the terracotta statues of horses placed in tombs for use in the afterlife became more life-like. With flaring nostrils, pricked ears, strong necks and powerful legs, these majestic statues were probably the first to depict the Ferghana horse in Chinese art.

Successive dynasties also regarded the horse as an important addition to Mingqi although they tended to be more abstract rather than life-like.

The Northern and Southern dynasties examples tend to be rather staid and life-less with the legs of the animal showing little or no movement.

As this was a period of war and uncertainty with regional lords fighting for land possession, there was no single ruler of China so it is natural that the standard of Mingqi was to fall in comparison to the earlier Imperial Han dynasty.

Many of the statues depict heavily armoured cavalrymen holding weapons such as swords, lances and shields and even the horses themselves were modelled in full armour. This period is possibly the first to show the horse with almost total protection accurately reflecting the reality of the time.

There are, of course, exceptions to the rule; during the Northern Wei dynasty and the Northern Qi dynasty horse statues, although small even for the elite, were carefully fashioned with close attention to detail. With powerfully arched necks and broad chests, many were decorated with bells, conch shells and outwardly flowing blankets resembling wings in flight.

The strikingly long and angled necks can probably be attributed to a period style that favoured elongation of forms, a style also observed in Buddhist sculpture.

It was during the "golden age" of Chinese art that the horse statue became a true work of art. The Tang dynasty was a period of peace and prosperity with traders venturing further than ever before. Returning home they brought back western fashions and traditions which were quickly embraced by the upper classes.

Statues of the period reflect not only the growing popularity of riding for pleasure but also the unprecedented freedom of movement enjoyed by high-ranking women of the 7th and 8th centuries.

Now we begin to see female equestrians dressed in narrow skirts, short sleeved jackets and fitted blouses with low-cut necklines and western style hats over head scarfs or cowls and the horse itself had reached an unprecedented degree of naturalism.

Movement had been introduced on a grand scale for the first time in the history of Mingqi; horses pawing the ground head down and mouth open became more common. Large, exquisite walking Ferghana horses with great attention paid to anatomical detail were the choice of the wealthy and even horses in full gallop sporting a male or female polo player are occasionally discovered.

Whether painted in a variety of mineral based colours or glazed in stunning green, brown or cream glazes, the horse in Chinese art had reached almost perfection.

The horse was second only in importance to the dragon. It was supposed to possess magical powers which the early Chinese were eager to explore.

It would be the horse that would carry the deceased to the next life and it would be the amount of horses that an individual owned that would guarantee his ongoing status in the next life.

There is, however, one curious fact that so far remains a mystery; out of all the terracotta horse statues produced only about twelve have so far been discovered with their heads turned to the right. All the others turn to the left or point forwards.

Even among the great host of horses and riders in the tomb of the Tang Prince I-te there were only two or three examples with their heads slightly inclined to the right.

This is also a feature to be noted among statues of camels.

There are a number of theories as to why this is the case; one is that the Chinese believed that left was for good and right for bad however, the real reason remains, for the moment at least, a mystery.

Four happiness boys

The image of the "Four Happiness Boys" is believed to have began sometime during the Ming Dynasty by a child prodigy by the name of Jie Jin. By the age of five, this remarkable child had studied and mastered the ancient Chinese ‘Four Books’ and the ‘Five Classics' and soon made his way into formal studies alongside other renowned Chinese scholars of the period. The "Four Happiness Boys" is the ancient image or drawing of two interconnected boys to create the illusion of four laughing boys lying in four directions. The picture symbolizes ‘four happiness joined together’, which basically were: a wedding night, passing the imperial exams, running into a friend in a faraway place, and rain after a long drought - instances all considered to be among life’s major fortunes in ancient China. To this day, this image continues to be painted, drawn or cast in many materials including bronze, brass, and porcelain and is often given as a symbolic wedding gift for an abundant marriage, many generations of children, and good fortune and happiness.

Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty

The Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty is a name used to collectively describe the four painters Huang Gongwang, Wu Zhen, Ni Zan, active in the Yuan Dynasty. They worked during the Yuan period and were revered during the Ming Dynasty and later periods as major exponents of the tradition of “literati painting” , which was concerned more with individual expression and learning than with outward representation and immediate visual appeal.

Two of the “Four Masters” were Huang Gongwang and Wu Zhen, who, being of the earlier generation of artists in the Yuan, consciously emulated the work of ancient masters, especially those pioneering artists of the Five Dynasties period, such as Dong Yuan and Juran, who rendered landscape in a broad, almost Impressionistic manner, with coarse brushstrokes and wet ink washes. While these painters were also revered by the two younger Yuan masters, the restrained thinness of Ni Zan and the almost embroidered richness of Wang Meng could not be more different from the work of the older Yuan masters.

Thus, with the "Four Masters", all of whom were noted for their lofty personal and aesthetic ideals, the art of landscape painting shifted from an emphasis on close representation of nature to a personal expression of nature's qualities. They spurred experimentation with novel brushstroke techniques, with a new attention to the vocabulary of brush manipulation.

Four Wangs

The Four Wangs were four painters in the 17th century, all called Wang. They were Wang Shimin , , and Wang Yuanqi . They were members of the group known as the Six Masters of the early Qing period.

Four Gentlemen

The "Four Gentlemen", also called the Four Noble Ones or Four Friends, in Chinese art refers to four plants: the orchid, the bamboo, the chrysanthemum, and the blossom. The term compares the four plants to Confucianist ''junzi'', or "gentlemen". A painting or decoration incorporating all four plants is also known as the "Four Gentlemen". They are most typically depicted in traditional ink and wash painting. The "Four Gentlemen" belong to the category of bird-and-flower painting in Chinese art.

The Four Gentlemen have been used in Chinese painting since the time of the Chinese Song Dynasty because of their refined beauty, and were later adopted by artists in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. As they represent the four different seasons , the four are used to depict the unfolding of the seasons through the year.

The Four Gentlemen are an important subject matter in learning to paint in the aforementioned Asian traditions, as they embody all the basic brush styles. They are also depicted in mahjongg tiles.