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Chinese Painting

Chinese Painting is famous worldwide. Textual and archaeological sources show that painting has been practiced in China since the Neolithic Age almost 6000 years ago. In the early period of China's history, wall paintings were produced in great numbers, unfortunately, few of the paintings from this era have survived to the modern day. Surviving paintings from earlier times are of especial interest to archaeologists and historians due to the insight they can give into Chinese culture and life in the periods they were created. Furthermore, because such paintings have long been considered as one of the highest cultural achievements in Chinese history, they provide invaluable insights into the development of the aesthetic values and tastes of later artists and of Chinese culture in general.
Over the centuries, the growth of Chinese painting inevitably reflected the change of time and social conditions. The Chinese painter requires great skill; they must wield their soft paintbrush with strength and dexterity to create a wide variety of different lines-thick, thin, dense, light, long, short, dry, wet. An artist may specialize in detailed and delicate line drawing called Gongbi or abstract, impressionistic paintings known as Xieyi, depending on his skills and preferences. A painter will begin their training with line drawing, who must master it before graduating on to the subtle details of realistic scenes or impressionism's more abstract depictions. Another skill practiced by Chinese artists is that of painting with the fingers, which results in a picture unlike any produced with a brush.

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