Title: Chinese art | Britannica
Headings: Chinese art
Chinese art
Learn about Chinese art including their sculptures during the Han dynasty
Aesthetic characteristics and artistic traditions
Art as a reflection of Chinese class structure
The role of linearity in Chinese art

Content: Gradually one tradition became identified with the artists and craftsmen who worked for the court or sold their work for profit. The scholarly amateurs looked upon such people with some contempt, and the visual arts of the literati became a separate tradition that was increasingly refined and rarefied to the point that, from the Song dynasty (960–1279) onward, an assumed awkwardness ( zhuo) or understatement ( pingdan) in technique was admired as a mark of the amateur and gentleman. As a medium of highly individual expression, painting and calligraphy also became important media of exchange in a social economy where the giving of gifts was central to the building of an interpersonal network. Like skill in letters, poetry, or music, skill and expressive quality in the practice of calligraphy and painting helped establish one’s status in a society of learned individuals. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now
One effect of the revolutions of the 20th century was the breaking down of the class barriers between amateur and professional. During the Cultural Revolution of 1966–76, literati art and artists were denigrated and an emphasis was placed on anonymous, proletarian-made art like that of the Tang dynasty (618–907) and earlier. The role of linearity in Chinese art
Since the 3rd century ce, calligraphy, or writing as a fine art, has been considered supreme among the visual arts in China. Not only does it require immense skill and fine judgment, but it is regarded as uniquely revealing of the character and breadth of cultivation of the writer. Since the time when inscribed oracle bones and tortoise shells (China’s oldest extant writing) were used for divination in the Shang dynasty ( c. 1600–1046 bce ), calligraphy has been associated with spiritual communication and has been viewed in terms of the writer’s own spiritual attunement.