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

The fundamental component of Chinese painting is the line, as it is in Chinese calligraphy. Because of this shared feature, these two arts have had, beginning from a very early time, a close mutual relationship.  By the time that "literati" painting had become popular in the Yuan Dynasty, men of letters who painted put even more conscious effort into reaffirming the link to Chinese calligraphy and actively led a trend to fuse calligraphy and painting.

The close relationship between poetry and painting was formed under the strong influence of literature on painting.  Scholar-statesmen and literati led the melding of poetry and painting and this eventually spread to the academy of painting.  The Song Emperor Hui Zong is known to have used poetry to test painters on their ability to express with ink and paper the enchanted world created in written verse.