Chinese Arts --- I, II, III, IV, V, VI

However, due to gradual social, economic, and cultural changes, more and more men of letters began to take up painting and literature came to exercise an ever-increasing influence on painting.  By the time of the famous Song poet Su Shi (1036-1101 AD), better known as Su Dongpo), the school of "literati painting" had already emerged.  By the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 AD), there was no longer a formal painting academy organization within the imperial palace so the court style of painting declined.  At this point, the "literati" school of painting entered the mainstream and the leadership in Chinese paintingcircles fell into the hands of literati painters.

Whether Chinese painting is "realistic" is the object of frequent debate.  Some may feel that it is not realistic but such an answer tells only part of the story.  Realism in Chinese painting reached its climax in the painting of the Tang and Song Dynasties.  However, the kind of "realism" sought in Chinese painting is not an objective reflection of the existence of an object as perceived through the sense of sight, but rather is an expression of a subjective kind of recognition or insight.

For example, no overt effort is made to represent the shadows cast by a particular type of lighting at a certain place and time in the clothing on people depicted in the Song Dynasty painting Che Kan Tu and for this reason, the painting does not have a clear three-dimensional effect.  After the painter set the lines down on paper, he used watercolor wash techniques to achieve a chiaroscuro effect of light and dark, representing the forces of "yin" and "yang" to express his grasp of the eternal quintessential nature of his subject.  A square planter painted according to the objective principles of perspective should in theory appear longer in front and be foreshortened in back, reflecting the perceived decrease in relative size of more distant objects.  But the front and back edges of a real planter are equal in length and this knowledge of the physical world is incorporated into the image the painter of the Che K'an T'u created.  The planter is represented as a flat surface with sides that are equal in length.