PART 11.

CHINESE ART

Calligraphy and Painting

Chinese calligraphy and painting
may overlap as one art. As a matter Of
fact, "writing With brush and ink defined
the scholar and was a necessary
component of painting". It was also believed that man's character and physical
appearance can be revealed through the form and rhythm of his ideographs as
much as his personality and state of mind can be revealed through landscape
painting. However, calligraphy was more pervasive than painting.

Calligraphy was common to many places inasmuch as it can be seen in

homes, shops, palaces, and even temples. There is calligraphy on silk, paper,
stone, metal, wood, and ceramic. Brush, ink, inkstone, and silk or paper are
said to be the Four Treasures of calligraphy and painting. Stungkel (2011)
further added: "The ubiquity and power of calligraphy to elicit pleasure and a
sense of mystery was shared by all traditional Chinese whether literate or not. It
was one of the forces that held millions of Chinese together for centuries in

a vast land."

Landscape Painting
Landscape painting has been the
dominant form of visual art in China. There has
been no subject for artists that rivaled
landscape after the 10 th century. Stungkel
(2011) added that it "had strong Confucian
overtones of reverence for tradition and
reflected Taoist ideas of cosmic energy and
spontaneous activity believed to flow from a
brushstroke". Landscape painting included
hills, valleys, cliffs, lakes, ponds, rivers,
waterfalls, and mountain ranges. It also
included plants and animal life with human
inhabitants in the background that are almost
lost.
Landscape paintings were also not hung
in galleries or even painted on walls and ceilings.
There were landscape paintings in hanging scrolls,
hand scrolls, and album leaves. Hanging scrolls
and hand scrolls were rolled up, and can be put
away when it is not
 Shaded being viewed. IC
can bc rolled open again if a Dwellings among Streams and Mountains
person wishes to contemplate. Hand scrolls by Dong Qichang
Source: tnettneseurn.org
were rolled from right to left and rerolled from left to right so that
the viewer can see a continuous unfolding of the scene. The hanging
scroll can be displayed on a wall, unrolled from the top and there
were weights at the bottom. The album leaf is displayed in collections
that are bound like a book so that the viewer can see a succession of
scenes by turning the folios.
Stungkel (2011) also said that "Landscape
scenes were also painted on fans, screens,
robes, and pottery, but those kinds of media
were not usually preferred by literati
artists".

Landscape painting, together with

calligraphy, has been practiced and considered
as an art form because of three reasons. The
first was that "the literati class was
consolidated in the Tang and Sung periods,
which meant a shared view of the world
acquired through the study of classical
literature, a status usually conferred by the
examination system, and skills in calligraphy
as part of the scholar's training'. Hence, it
was as early as the Tang dynasty that scholars
dominated the landscape painting, with the
belief that painting in itself is helpful for
personal cultivation.

The second reason was the fact that

scholars had long experience with Buddhism in
mountains and forests. They stayed in temples
that were built in remote places most
especially in summit of mountains. Hence,
mountain landscapes were a spiritual home
where humans and nature shared affinity with
Tao, especially for the Taoist-Buddhist and
the landscape painter.
Third reason can be clearly captured in
the following explanation of Stungkel (2011):
Neo-Confucian philosophy inspired
a new way of seeing nature, the
idea that reality could be
 understood as the li (principle)
of things grasped by "the
investigation of things."
Painting became an agent of such
investigation. Each of the
various components of Neo-
Confucian thought—Taoism,
Buddhism, Confucianism, yin-yang
an influence. From
philosophical Taoism came the
unity and spontaneity of the
world, the oneness of man with
nature. Effects of this doctrine
on the landscape painter included
a deep affinity with the external
world of mountains, streams,
forests, and creatures. Plants
and animals were to be depicted
alive— no dead animals, cut
flowers, or plucked fruit so
familiar in Western still life.

Sculpture art, "The human form was

According to never a motif Their
Siren, in Chinese Of greatest sculptures were
paramount importance not done of physical
to them. as movement, or other motives
glorifications of
when they introduced
individual beauty,
based on material elements of form
experience. Even
 rawn from the objective world, their creations were
with the actual living organisms, but as projections
intended to express or evoke ideas Of a more general

He further added: not

done
Their art was essentially conventional. no
in
ambition to break the traditional some kind
of personal originality, but enter into from
the
accepted formulae as possible, and to their
fill
them with the which depends on the intimate
or
connection single individual and the
universal life. of art from some of the
medieval sculpture it was carried further in
China; the free from the tendency towards
spiritual

The
sculptors felt
symbols or to
display
sought rather
to completely
as greater
significance
between the
We know this
type of
Europe, but
Chinese were
quite
anthropomorp
hic
idealization so characteristic of European art, and they had a
stronger feeling for the essential unity which underlies all
the changing manifestations of material life.

A number of Chinese sculptures are generally representative

of religious motifs that are Buddhist in origin and not infrequently
in human form. Siren further described, "Buddha and Bodhisattva
ideas are expressed with many variations in the shape of figures
placed in postures of symbolic significance, intended to convey
different aspects of a spiritual consciousness which pervades the
whole universe. They are not to be interpreted as individual beings in
the ordinary sense of the word, nor as memory images or idealizations
of actual persons who may have existed at some time or other, but as
portrayals of consciousness or symbolic indications of the successive
stages by which the human nature approaches the divine".

that was of life-size

figures of Shi Huangti's

rock face at the

Source:
(2017) described ancient Chinese

Walled compounds, raised and panelling, yellow

glazed gardens, and a careful application use of
space are all notable ancient China, with many
important part in modern Architects were
influenced by Buddhism which originated ancient
China remained remarkably constant in
 fundamental appearance over the centuries,
inspiring much of the architecture of other
neighboring East Asian states, especially in ancient
Japan and Korea. Unfortunately, few ancient
Chinese buildings survive today, but
reconstructions can be made based on clay models,
descriptions in contemporary texts, and depictions
in art such as wall paintings and engraved bronze
vessels.

He added that Chinese architecture has remained constant all

throughout its history. Larger structures like temples, halls, and
gate towers were built on a raised platform compacted earth and
faced with brick or stone. But small private homes of the ancient
Chinese were built from dried mud, rouch stones and wood, and the
plan was mostly square, rectangular, or oval.

Moreover, the most

common building type
had regularly spaced timber
posts which were
strengthened by horizontal
cross-beam (Cartwright,
2017); this was
supplemented by Qiyi,
Sullivan, and Silbergeld
(2019) by describing that
Chinese
architecture was built Althoughchiefly using timber.
Cartwright (2017) said that Nanchan Temple there were
techniques used by Source: chinadaily.com.cn the
Chinese to protect buildings

et al. (2019) stated that very little ancient Chinese architecture had
sulNived. With this, they described the small main hall of the Nanchan
Temple, on Mount Wutai in Shanxi province as the oldest datable timber
building.

Chinese architects had their ideas India and the Buddhism

from started there. Ancient Buddhist which a matter of fact, have
temples, as dougong, a bracket joining the used and horizontal roof
beam, to done like
simplifying the roof
top of the post SUPPort the wooden posts.
Developments were

beams to make the structure lighter, increasing the height of pillars,

roofs made more curved in the corners, and use of decorative tiles and
figures such as dragons at the ends and ridges of roofs. But none of these
Buddhist temples survived today (Cartwright, 2017).
Moreover, the five types of ancient Chinese architecture include
imperial palaces (The Forbidden City), defensive walls (The Great
Wall), pagodas (Big Wild Goose Pagoda), altars and temples (Temple
of Heaven), and mausoleums (Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang).

PART 111. JAPANESE ART

Painting
It has been said that Japanese painting started during the Asuka
period from 522-646. The pattern of culture which they had during the 16th
century were not discarded for a new one; but these were developed further
by selecting and adopting the good and attractive in Korea and China into
theirs. For instance, when Buddhism reached Japan, temple paintings were
modeled from mainland China but these were modified. Hence, "it is true
that the course of religious painting in Japan from the 6 th to the 14th
centuries followed in a general way Buddhist painting in China. The
monochrome landscape school as brought to Japan by Zen Buddhism is
derived from Sung landscape but becomes quite a different thing in Japan"
(Priest, 1953).

Priest (1953) added that Buddhist paintings were hieratic and

didactic and these had survived in the temples of Japan. Moreover,
"Japanese religious paintings included a wonderful tradition of
portraiture, and in the details of the Buddhist paradises and scenes of the
life of Buddha, there are intimations of what we call genre; landscape in
backgrounds very early takes

Hays (2009) mentioned that

the Heian period (794-1185), which
is an indigenous style, had Chinese
modes of painting. It scenery around
Kyoto. He added, with this new,
native style came formats for
painting: the album leaf and the
illustrated handscroll, called emaki.
The Tale of Genji Scrolls (ca. 1120)
is the most famous emakt".
 sometimes ART APPRECIATION based on history I Marquez, just like C.A.Sthe

Muromachi period (1333-1568), monochrome the Zen Buddhists was noted to the
most who painted Hab0ku-Sansui, was the most landscapes. Although painters during
this or temples done in detailed brushwork and background done in ink washes", they
managed give a suggestion of depth, distance, and other forms like birds, plants,
priests, and

that "in the Momoyama period (1568war lords encouraged the gorgeous
form of is reflected in the present day in the background". An example of this is
Birds and medium was a pair of six-panel folding gold leaf on paper.

Japanese art emerged during the Tokugawa or that there was a school of decorative
painters Koetsu. It was also during this period that also referred to as "pictures of
the floating which were actually one of the first forms

that what sets Japanese art different by from was that it was "rigorously simple,
color, and composition"

stated that period when in the that "the first

sculptures graves"

that the first Haniwa Horse Head Jomon people,

Source: britannica.com

B.C. to A.D.
immigrant group in the beginning of the era, bronze bells, and kiln-fired
ceramics. Typical period (approximately A.D. 300 to A.D. mirrors and clay
sculptures called haniu,a, tombs" (Hays, 2009).
presented. The presented story is

During the Ashikaga

or ink painting that was
inspired by remarkable
development. sesshu,
famoUS master who
painted ink period usually
painted with "trees masses
of mountains in the
comparatively little detail
to great grandeur". They
also painted

Priest (1953) also

mentioned 1615), the
powerful shoguns and
decoration for their palaces
which decorative screens
with gold Flowers of the
Four Seasons whose screens
using ink color, gold, and
Several
developments in Edo
period (1650-1867) more
so that included Korin,
Sotatsu, and Ukiyo-eh was
introduced. It is world" that
used woodblock prints of
Japanese art.
Priest (1953) emphasized
other styles

influenced by Buddhism
simple in the
matters of
line, of
 Sculpture
Ortiz et al. (1976) generally "Japanese art started in Dolmen
an imperial court was established province of Yamato" and added
objects were the haniwas, the ancient tomb

HOWever, Hays (2009)

described
Settlers of Japan, who were
the
Yayoi people (approximately 300
300), whose core was a different
manufactured copper weapons,
artifacts from the Kofun
(Tumulus) 710) that followed
were bronze
Which were
erected outside
of
Dogu are
prayer figures
used and
fertility. There
are female dogu
butts and hips,
others have
babies and
some other
female dogu are
nude while
some male
dogu have
beards Hay (2009) added that these were
with agriculture because they appeared
MarqU eZ;
for prosperity that have big in their arms and pregnant; and big
chests. not associated in Japan
before agriculture did.
that
was Japanese Hakuho sculpture influenced by the Chinese tang Dynasty was
eventually "rejected because it was considered too ornamental and excessively
decorative for Japanese tastes" (Hays, 2009). A remarkable sculptural work that was
constructed during the Kamakura period Shakoki-dogu, 1000- was the Daibutsu or
The Great Buddha.
400 BCE Constructed in 1252, this 93-ton bronze sculpture Source: ancient-
origins.net in Nara is the second largest Buddha statue.
 Shingon Esoteric Buddhism also considered use of art so
much so that statues that are part of the Kodo Hall of the Toji
Temple are particularly well known arts. The hall had eight statues
that included two mystical myoo wisdom kings who are known as
Taishakuten and a fierce Jikokuten. Zen Buddhism also had
profound influences on Japanese art although Zen had a disapproval
of Buddha images that consequently resulted to the birth of a new
tradition of human portraits and statues that are secularized, which
gained momentum in the next centuries (Hays, 2009).
However, most of the sculptural works in Japan are Buddhist
images made for Buddhist temples. Most of those sculptural works
were made from wood or bronze. At the time Mahayana Buddhism
was introduced, artisans "turned their attention from ceramics and
metalwork to Buddhist images, namely sculptures" that were made
mostly by Korean and Chinese immigrants. If there were images
made by the Japanese, these were almost 30Pied works from Korea
and China.
With all these, there are four main types of Buddhist sculptures
found n temples. The first one is the Nyorai, a term used to refer to
Buddha. The is bosatsu which is also known as bodhisattva,
which is used to refer o saintly entities of the Buddhist tradition. The
third is the deities and spirits mch as ten, which is referred to as the
heavenly beings or devas. The last is he myoo, which are referred to
as the kings of wisdom and light that serve as )rotectors of
Buddhism. There are also main images found in Buddhist emples
such as the Shaka (Historical Buddha), Yakushi (Healing Buddha),
Imita (Buddha of the Western Paradise), Dainichi (Cosmic Buddha)
and Zaiterya (Buddha of the Future). In addition, the most
0Utstanding works of
h.lddhist sculptures are made of wood; and among the different types
of such

are the ART APPRECIATION I Marquez, C.A.S

natabori, and byakudan. from a Ichiboku are Statuary
ichiboku, works
single block of wood. sculptured Natabon are hatchet
made were left notched with chiselsculptures that scars. Byakudan
deliberately sandalwood or any otherare sculptures wood (Hays, 2009).
made from fragrant
Japanese sculpture reached its
It was during Buddha were mostly serene and
the Nara period that making two dimensional images
golden age. During this period, into
images of made of clay. Sculptors
also moved from
"startling, almost eerie, realistic works of art". The Yakushi Trias is
said to be the masterpiece from this period. It can be viewed at the
Yakushi temple in southern Nara and the Ganjin statue at Nara's
Toshodaiji temple (Hays,

Among the famous Japanese sculptors were Kokei and Unkei.

Architecture
During the prehistoric times, there were no extant architectural
sites and styles. Architecture was even hardly mentioned even in the
oldest Japanese texts. But research tells that houses had thatched
roofs and dirt floors, but wooden floors were used in regions that
had high temperatures and humidity. When communities grew, so
were the residential houses
especially of the local ruling family and even rice storage houses that
were in Sannai-Maruyama in Aomori and the Yoshinogari in Saga.
Tombs were constructed when a centralized administrative system was
developed. The most remarkable was the Daisen-kofun which was the
designated tomb of the Emperor Nintoku.

The oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world are found at

Horyu temple in the Southwest of Nara during the Asuka period.
Constructed in the early 7th century, it has 41 separate buildings. In the
8th century, temple building was focused at Todaiji in Nara. Todaiji is
said to be the most ambitious religious complex erected in the early
centuries of Buddhism in Japan.

Buddhist
architecture stupa in its Chinese form as a pagoda. Temples
were erected in It was during this time that Japanese
architects used indigenous design: cypress-bark roofs
replaced those of ceramic tiles, and were used instead of
earthen floors. The shinden zukuri was aristocratic mansions
 which were built during the Heian period the 10th century.
In the Fujiwara period, architectural sites were elegant
aesthetic pursuits. An example of this is the Amida Hall
Phoenix Hall called the Ho-o-do of the Byodoin which is the
best Fujiwara Amida halls.
After the Kamakura period, architectural styles were simple and
sturdy; many of the samurai houses were a mixture of shinden-zukuri
and turrets or trenches. Buke-zukuri, which was house for a military
family, was similar to the shinden-zukuri. Changes were applied so that
aristocratic families can be distinguished from the military family.
Bukezukun were made simple and practical. It was during the
Kamakura period that the tea ceremony was developed and practiced.
The tea house was, therefore, constructed following a rustic style
cottage that emphasized natural materials such as bark-covered logs
and woven straw.

architectural It was styles during were the developed. Azuchi-

momoyama The castle and period the shoin that were new
developedforms of as responses to the militaristic climate of the times.
The Himeji Castle, also known as the White Heron Castle, was a
defensive structure built to house a feudal lord and his soldiers
specifically during the times of trouble. The Ohiroma of Nijo Castle is
one example of a shoin, which serves as a reception hall and private
study area designed to reflect the relationships of lord and vassal within
a feudal society.

It was during the Edo

period when architectural
styles were simplified. Since
the city of Edo was frequently
destroyed by fire, a simplified
architecture was necessary for
easy reconstruction. It was
then in the 19th century when
Japan was exposed to Western
culture that they were able to
blend Japanese styles with
European architectural styles.
The Giyofu architecture, also
called as pseudo-Westernstyle
architecture, resembled a
western style but considered Japanese design Source: techniques.
hisour.comIt was during the

APT
Meiji period when this was common but it eventually disappeared when
western techniques became prevalent (New World Encyclopedia, 2018).

Self-Assessment Questions:
1. How can you describe ancient Indian people in relation to arts?
2. Justify why ancient Chinese people built colossal structures?
3. What makes Japanese art distinct from other ancient Asian
civilizations?