Title: Chinese painting - Characteristics of painting | Britannica
Headings: Characteristics of painting
Characteristics of painting
From the Shang dynasty to 220 ce
Zhou dynasty (1046–256 bce)

Content: Other forms are fan painting and the album leaf. The artist’s carefully placed signature, inscription, and seals are an integral part of the composition. In Chinese eyes a picture may gain considerably in interest and value from the colophons added by later connoisseurs on the painting itself or, in the case of a hand scroll, mounted after it. The mounting of paintings is a highly skilled craft and, if carefully done, will enhance the appearance of a scroll and ensure its preservation for many centuries. From the Shang dynasty to 220 ce
Zhou dynasty (1046–256 bce)
The arts of the Zhou dynasty, the longest dynasty in Chinese history, reflect the profound changes that transformed Chinese society during this period of nearly 800 years. The first Zhou rulers virtually took over the Shang culture; indeed, the earliest bronze vessels bearing Zhou inscriptions might, from their style, have been made in the Shang dynasty. The Zhou kings parceled out their expanding territory among feudal lords, each of whom was free to make ritual objects for his own court use. As the feudal states rose in power and independence, so did the central Zhou itself shrink, to be further weakened by the eastward shift of the capital from sites in the Wei River valley near modern-day Xi’an to Luoyang in 771 bce. Thereafter, as the Zhou empire was broken up among rival states, many local styles in the arts developed.