The arts of China encompass a large and diverse body of material spanning two millennia. From Neolithic pottery to posters produced by the communes of Huhsien county during the Cultural Revolution, its extent and artistic variety make the idea of continuity as much an illusion in Chinese art as it is in Chinese history. Nonetheless, certain enduring values are endemic to traditional Chinese life and are reflected in the form and aesthetic flavor of its artistic traditions. During the 2,000 years preceding the revolution of 1912, China evolved a hierarchy of the arts that was but one aspect of the general structure of its society. The literary arts were at the summit (see \TChinese literature\t), followed by \Tcalligraphy\t, the art of writing with brush and ink. Calligraphy's status was sometimes shared by the art of playing the Chinese lute, or ch'in. These arts were followed by painting, after which came chess and other scholarly pursuits. Manual crafts, including pottery, sculpture, and even architecture, were traditionally considered as products of mere artisans. CALLIGRAPHY Calligraphy, the noblest of the visual arts, was the most direct expression of that prodigious literacy that marked the elite of China. It was venerated even by the illiterate masses, and its values changed less over 2,000 years than those of any other art. Those who controlled the administration of the Chinese empire, and who therefore wielded the greatest influence over its evolution, cultivated the art of handwriting as an active element in the education of the scholar-gentry class. They ascribed to calligraphy the profoundest spiritual values and distinguished it completely from the technical labor of professional artisans. Yet no art has ever depended more upon technical expertise, acquired through the most arduous and prolonged effort. Nature of Chinese Writing To the modern eye, especially one ignorant of the Chinese language, the patterns emerging from calligraphic forms seem a remarkable precursor of abstract expressionism. Yet to the Chinese, calligraphy is a most potent flux of concrete imagery. It requires painstaking study of the calligraphy of others through endless copying; at the same time it emphasizes more than any other art the essential uniqueness of the individual's achievement. The nature of calligraphy depends upon two principal factors, the script and the writing implement. In the Chinese language each word is written as a single, discrete symbol, or character. Characters can be written in several different scripts, which represent different stages in the evolution of the written language that took place over centuries. Instead of being discarded, these scripts were concurrently maintained by later calligraphers. This practice was a manifestation of the intensive study of the past that characterized most aspects of Chinese civilization. It molded both the content and nature of the art of calligraphy, which distilled the essence of an intense humanism. Venerating to a unique degree the written word as the preserver of their collective past, the Chinese thus have venerated handwriting as the most direct communication with the shared values of people in that past. The materials of calligraphy are considered essential to proper performance. Contemporary sources record the invention of paper in China around AD 105. China's invention and use of paper, preceding its discovery in the West by 11 centuries, profoundly affected the development of calligraphy and eventually of painting. Although calligraphy was often written on silk, its most distinctive qualities emerged out of the reactions between the brush, ink, and paper. The finely pointed brush was usually made from goat or wolf hair. To be perfectly controlled, the brush had to be held essentially upright, so that its tip remained centered over the writing surface. The deep black ink used was mixed when required by rubbing on an ink stone a few drops of water and an ink stick made from pine soot and protein glue. The best paper was made from mulberry bark and imparted a deep glow to the readily absorbed ink. The Chinese honored each of these items as the product of a highly refined craft, and a precise sense of ritual accompanied their use. These attitudes were also adopted by painters, and in the practice and connoisseurship of these arts, a sensitivity to material qualities was essential. Evolution of Chinese Writing The earliest Chinese writing that can be read today dates from around the 13th century BC. Still earlier forms are as yet undeciphered. Two distinct forms are known from the earliest decipherable stage. A vividly pictographic script appears on the magnificent bronze vessels of the \TShang\t period (c.1600-1027 BC), having been engraved into the molds as dedicatory inscriptions. More complex texts in a much more abstract script were engraved by Shang diviners on ox scapulae and turtle plastrons, known as \Toracle bones\t. The relationship between the bronze and the oracle-bone script has not been clearly determined, nor have the many chronological and regional variations occurring over the ensuing millennium in many parts of China. The CH'in (221-206 BC), the first dynasty to unify China under centralized rule, produced a standardized script that came into use throughout the country. Later called small seal script (hsiao-chuan), it had evolved from an increasingly square regularization of the large seal script (ta-chuan) of the \TChou\t dynasty (c.1027-256 BC), in which the Confucian Classics had originally been written. Bureaucratic requirements during the \THan\t period (202 BC-AD 220) exerted strong pressure for greater simplification and standardization. The result was a new category of script called simply clerical script (li-shu). The archaic seal script was often retained for formal titles and was also adapted to the small seals that have been used as signatures from the Han to the present. These small red stamps, often present on documents, letters, books, and paintings, may signify either authorship or ownership. By the 4th century AD, the formal regular script (kai-shu), which is basically the printed script of today, and various abbreviated cursive scripts had evolved. \TWang Hsi-chih\t, the leading calligrapher of the 4th century, was revered by later generations as the "sage calligrapher" of all time. The T'ANG dynasty (618-906) was the classic age of regular script; its formality was ideally suited to the aristocratic splendor of that period. The running script (hsing-shu) had many of its greatest practitioners in the \TSung\t dynasty (960-1279), when calligraphers and other artists explored new modes of self-expression with great originality. Much of the finest cursive script (ts'ao-shu) was written in the \TMing\t dynasty (1368-1644), when great attention was focused on the formal properties of art. In the later \TCh'ing\t dynasty (1644-1911) the ancient seal script was revived by calligraphers such as I Ping-shou (1754-1815). In this century, when Shang oracle bones were recovered after 3,000 years of obscurity, their archaic script was also translated into a brush-written form. PAINTING The earliest known examples of Chinese painting date from the Han dynasty (202 BC-AD 220), when the walls of temples and official halls were often painted with murals. Almost none of the early mural paintings survive, however, except for some within cave temples and on the walls of tomb chambers. Their style is closely related to the sculptured tomb reliefs of the period. Through the T'ang period (618-906), murals and large screens were probably the painter's main formats. Another format, that of the scroll, evolved concurrently and later became much more important in the history of Chinese painting. The earliest type of scroll painting was the horizontal handscroll. This was also the earliest form of the book, in use before a folding format--stitched down one side in a manner similar to the Western book--was developed in the Sung (960-1279). To be viewed, the handscroll is placed on a table and the viewer unrolls it, length by length. Some handscrolls extend many feet in length. During the Sung, vertical scrolls intended for hanging on a wall also became common. Scroll painting was traditionally produced for the exclusive enjoyment of a small intellectual elite. Many of the early painters are known by name since they signed their works long before this practice became customary in the West. Names of many other artists are known from their mention in essays on art theory. Because the faithful copying of works of revered masters was commonly practiced in China, it is often possible to gain an impression of an artist's style even when no original paintings survive. Han Through Five Dynasties Period From the Han period through the 8th century, the principal subject matter of painting was the depiction of human figures as edifying exemplars of good character. Among the earliest recorded figure painters, much prominence is accorded \TKu K'ai-chih\t (c.345?-406?), to whom the earliest surviving scroll painting has been attributed. In this handscroll, entitled Admonitions of the Instructress of the Ladies of the Palace (British Museum, London), the artist's brush point, as fine as a needle, has delineated his subjects with an acute psychological sense. The people are embodied by their clothes, rather than by their flesh, and the floating draperies are similar in style to those of 6th-century Buddhist sculpture. After the 8th century, in addition to paintings of human figures, birds and flowers became popular subjects. Bamboo and plum blossom became other special categories of painting, sanctioned by the strong symbolic value that these plant forms held for the literate class. \TSu Tung-p'o\t and his teacher Wen T'ung (d. 1079) were famous early masters of bamboo art. Various other themes appeared in painting, but from the 10th to the 20th century, the subject honored above all was landscape. The tradition of landscape painting in China is inextricably bound with broad cultural values. Unlike the Mediterranean world, China had no mythology of anthropomorphic gods. The belief in a self-creating universe led rather to a mythology of landscape itself. Mountains and waters were the grandest of all the cosmic images, supporting each other in a dynamic polarity. Sung and Yuan Periods The concept that the microcosm of man participates in the macrocosm of landscape is reflected in the tradition of monumental landscape painting that flourished during the Northern Sung period (960-1127). In the enormous hanging scroll Buddhist Temple in Autumn Mountains (Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri), attributed to the influential master Li Ch'eng (919-67), man is portrayed as but one small element within the enormity of nature. This theme underlies the styles of FAN KUAN, \TKuo Hsi\t, and other great landscape painters of Northern Sung. The monumentality of Northern Sung landscape was later transformed by the artists of the Southern Sung court into poetic views of nature of marvelous subtlety. This change resulted in part from the move of the Sung capital from Kaifeng, in the Honan region of North China, to Hangchow, in Chekiang, in the early 12th century. The northern painters had worked in a harder, clearer light. But among the marshes of the Yangtze delta, Southern Sung academy painters such as \THsia Kuei\t and \TMa Yuan\t painted scenes depicting a moist climate, where mountains floated elusively over mists, as in Ma Yuan's evocative Bare Willow and Mountain in Mist (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Another school of Sung painting was that of the Ch'an (Zen) Buddhist masters, who produced boldly outlined works of great simplicity and spontaneity. A notable example is the Six Persimmons scroll (Daitoku-ji, Kyoto) by the versatile monk-painter \TMu ch\t'i. A concern with self-expression that had surfaced in other arts during the Sung, notably in poetry and calligraphy, began to be explored in the Yuan (1279-1368) through the medium of landscape painting. The pioneer in this development was the calligrapher-painter \TChao Meng-fu\t, active in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. From this date the relationship between calligraphy and landscape painting became even closer. Painters began to talk of "writing" a picture. An already existing preference for painting without color, in ink alone, became stronger. In order to exploit a full range of ink tonalities, artists came to prefer executing paintings on paper instead of on silk, which absorbs ink more uniformly. In the Yuan the results were mainly an increasing emphasis upon the actual process of painting and a readiness to recognize styles of individual artists as a form of handwriting. Outstanding exponents of this new approach to painting were the landscape painters \THuang Kung-wang\t, \TNi Tsan\t, \TWang Meng\t, and WU CHEN, collectively known as the Four Great Yuan Masters. The practice of combining painting and calligraphy in a single composition also became more common. Ming Period In the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) the entire process of image making became more calligraphic. Since painters had always used a brush and ink similar to the calligrapher's, they had always tended to build their forms out of the basic brushstrokes used in forming Chinese characters. Now these tendencies were systematized, and the more representational values in pictorial art were often rejected in favor of a greater abstraction of form. Some Ming painters, such as the influential master and art theorist \TTung Ch'i-ch'ang\t (1555-1636), declared that ultimately calligraphy and painting were the same tao ("way"). Ming artists believed that exemplars from the past could provide aesthetic standards for the present; as a result the styles of many past masters were kept alive as options within the painter's contemporary vocabulary. Innumerable works are signed as "in the manner of" some earlier artist. The Wu school, an important school of Ming landscape painting founded by \TShen Chou\t, was based on these values. Tung Ch'i-ch'ang's handscroll Autumn Mountains (Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio) is a transformation of two earlier masterpieces, one by the 10th-century artist Tung Yuan, and one by the Yuan artist Huang Kung-wang (1269-1354). Tung Ch'i-ch'ang turned principally to these two exemplars in establishing an amateur tradition of painting, called the Southern school, that greatly influenced the development of later Chinese painting and orthodox art criticism. This school reflected the values of the scholar-gentry elite, who practiced art as a pastime rather than as a profession. Although they recognized the role of technique in calligraphy, Tung and other literati artists slighted the professional painter's technical skill and the frequently decorative quality of his work. They associated these so-called professional values mainly with two groups of artists: the court academy painters of the Southern Sung period, such as Ma Yuan, and the early Ming painters of the imperial court and of Chekiang province (collectively known as the Che school painters), such as \TTai Chin\t and his followers. From a broader viewpoint, however, these professional painters represented the same world, using the same techniques of brush and ink, that the scholars did. Not only are their paintings often of the highest quality, but they also contributed much to the styles of the scholars, whether acknowledged or not. Ch'ing Period to Present The first century of Ch'ing rule (1644-1911) was the last period of great creativity in traditional Chinese painting. The orthodox Southern school tradition of Tung Ch'i-ch'ang culminated in the styles of the so-called Four \TWangs\t. The most gifted of these four artists was Wang Yuan-ch'i (1642-1715), whose powerful architectonic forms have often been compared to those of the French modernist painter Paul Cezanne. Another large and varied group of artists, who are often grouped by the cities they most frequented, were less concerned with broad, historical developments, and pursued more individualistic aims. The best known of these artists were \TChu Ta\t, K'un Ts'an (1610?-93), and \TShih-t'ao\t (Tao-chi), a scion of the Ming royal house, who lived his art partly as a protest against the Manchu conquest of 1644. Scholar-artists of the Ch'ing period often tried to maintain a fiction that they never earned money from their paintings. But in the 18th century, with painters such as Chin Nung (1687-1764) and Lo P'ing (1733-99), both classed among the "Eight Eccentrics of Yangchow," this pretense was abandoned as a merchant society of vastly increasing wealth became an important patron. Although Western techniques of painting were introduced in China in the late 19th century, the prestige of brush painting and brush writing survives. \TMao Tse-tung\t's calligraphy has been much displayed and honored. The calligraphy of Chairman \THua Kuo-feng\t is compared to that of the T'ang statesman Yen Chen-ch'ing (709-85), who enjoyed great fame as both an administrator and a calligrapher. Twentieth-century masters of Chinese painting in the traditional mode include \TCh'i Pai-shih\t, LI K'O-JAN, and \TZao Wou-ki\t. TECHNOLOGY AND CRAFT: BRONZE, LACQUER, TEXTILES, AND JADE For thousands of years the applied arts in China have revealed a high level of refinement and technical mastery. The Shang dynasty (c.1600-1027 BC) established rule over the Central Plains region of the Hwang Ho (Yellow River) about the time that North China entered the Bronze Age. By the time the Shang was defeated by the Chou dynasty (c.1027-256 BC), one of the most remarkable of all Bronze Age arts had been perfected. Ritual Bronzes The small but powerful Shang aristocracy required vessels for such rituals as the ancestral sacrifices. Craftsmen in the new centers that marked the birth of the city in China--for example, the last two Shang capitals located at present-day \TCheng-chou\t and \TAnyang\t--responded magnificently to these demands. Building on a well-developed ceramic technology, they made clay models with an inner energy of form held by taut contours, and carved them with dense patterns of extraordinary precision; from these models, which often bore inscriptions, section molds of clay were taken and molten alloy was poured into the final assembly of the molds. Some of these ritual vessels, which were designed mainly for holding and heating meat, grain, and wine, are of a universally practicable shape. Others belong to a uniquely Chinese type. Almost all have such powerfully architectonic shapes as to seem monumental, even when no more than 15 cm (6 in) high, like many chueh. The largest are the rectangular, quadruped ting, one of which is more than 1.2 m (4 ft) high and weighs 800 kg (1,750 lb). The surface decoration of most of the bronzes is formed largely from fragmented zoomorphic motifs combined among densely repeated spirals. Their combination is often dominated by one recurring image, the t'ao-t'ieh monster mask. By the late Shang a profusion of knoblike protuberances and other exaggerated three-dimensional effects characterized much bronze decor. Although the manufacture of bronze vessels remained an important craft under the Chou dynasty, fundamental changes took place in the nature of the art. Old forms died and new technologies arose. The Shang rituals and their most distinctive vessels were abandoned by the Chou, who celebrated their own, frequently more political ceremonies. Inscriptions lengthened into major historical documents. In addition, the late Chou bronzes were sometimes inlaid with gold and silver as were the backs of bronze mirrors, produced from about 600 BC. The decoration of bronze mirrors reached a peak during the Han period, after which the art of bronze casting declined. Lacquer The upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River were the habitat of the lac tree (Rhus verniciflua), the sap of which may have been used for paint as early as the Shang dynasty. By the late Eastern Chou period (770-256 BC), \Tlacquer\t was used extensively for preservative and decorative purposes on many articles, such as bowls, musical instruments, and furniture. The kingdom of Ch'u, on the middle Yangtze, was a major early center of this art, the motifs of which were often similar to those used in gold and silver inlay on bronzes. In the Han dynasty (202 BC-AD 220) imperial lacquer factories were set up in the Szechwan region. By the time of the T'ang dynasty (618-906), lacquer was also used in modeling life-size, hollow-cored statues. In the 14th century and later, lacquer objects were frequently carved. In this technique the thickness of the lacquer had to be built up from as many as 200 layers. Red and black were the most common colors, sometimes applied in alternating layers. Lacquerware was also produced with representations of landscapes and figures inlaid with mother-of-pearl and precious metals. Textiles The weaving of silk was a distinctive craft of China as early as the Shang dynasty. From the Han dynasty the great overland trade routes that linked Mediterranean countries with China were founded on silk and other products of the Chinese artisan. Sericulture was long unique to China. Rome knew China as the "Silk Lands," and Han dynasty silks graced Roman aristocrats. The \TSilk Road\t leading from Ch'ang-an in China across Central Asia also brought innumerable merchants and craftsmen from western lands to China. The designs on T'ang textiles show extensive influence from Sassanian and other western sources. Also introduced from non-Chinese textile traditions was the process of weft-woven tapestry, in which colors are woven within limited areas instead of from selvage to selvage. The adaptation of tapestry weave, called k'o-ssu, became the greatest glory of the Chinese weaver's art, perhaps because it proved so suitable for translating paintings and calligraphy into textiles. K'o-ssu influenced, in turn, medieval European textile traditions. Jade In China jade was traditionally the most valued of all minerals. Jade is so hard that it cannot be cut, only ground away. The earliest abrasive known to have been used was quartz powder, presumably the material used by the Neolithic jade workers. Many jades have been found dating from the Shang dynasty. Worked with the same precision as were ritual bronzes, they were presumably used as ceremonial instruments and to adorn aristocratic dress. Some of the best known jade forms from Neolithic through late Chou times functioned as ritual symbols; for example, the pierced disc (pi) signified the heavens, the squared tube (tsung), the earth. During the Eastern Chou period (770-256 BC) the working of jades became increasingly elaborate, with finely detailed pierced designs. This fine work probably became possible with the introduction of much more effective rotary tools after cast iron was developed in the 6th to 5th centuries BC. Such pieces are one aspect of the magnificent flowering of decorative arts at that time. From the Han dynasty on, jades were generally much less spectacular. Most frequently they are small, sculptural pieces, similar to work in other materials, such as bamboo and rhinoceros horn. During the Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1911), especially under the emperor Kao-tsung in the Ch'ien-lung era (1736-95), jade carving became an important aspect of an explosive renaissance of craftwork. CERAMICS Neolithic pottery, which was not discovered until the 1920s, is the earliest form of Chinese art known today. Early Wares The wide-bellied, narrow-necked burial jars from Kansu province, their upper halves painted in red and black with powerful spirals, waves, and zigzags, are dated from about 2400 BC. The Kansu ware is a late phase of the Yang-shao pottery that originated in the early 5th millennium BC among the loess-covered hills around the junction of the Hwang Ho and the tributary Wei. The Yang-shao culture is considered the nuclear origin of Chinese civilization. Dating from the early 2d millennium BC is the Lung-shan culture, which originated in the coastal region of Shantung. This culture produced a distinctive black ware, its sharply articulated, angular shapes turned to eggshell thinness of body on a fast wheel and burnished to a glossy black. The Bronze Age evolved where the Yang-shao and Lung-shan overlapped in the central Hwang Ho plains. Although the bronze art of the following millennium largely eclipsed its contemporaneous pottery, during the Shang important technological advances occurred in kiln design, in clay composition (the introduction of pure white kao-lin), and in glazing techniques. In the Han dynasty (202 BC-AD 220) wares with a hard, feldspathic glaze became common. The brownish-green, gray-bodied ware, which was especially characteristic of the southeastern region of Chekiang, developed into a high-temperature-fired stoneware by the 6th century AD. Pottery manufacture was widely dispersed over the whole of China by this time. From the period of the Han dynasty but especially during the T'ang (618-906), lead glazes were used extensively to decorate clay objects made for burials. Combining with various metallic oxides, they make possible a dazzling range of colors. T'ang burial wares are often ablaze with up to four glazes, which were splashed and allowed to run with an extraordinary freedom over the body of the figurine or vessel. Such glazes fell into disuse soon after the T'ang and were forgotten until the modern age. Classical Wares of Sung The Sung dynasty (960-1279) is considered the classic age of Chinese ceramics. The perfection of Sung forms arises from their organic balance and dynamic fullness as contrasted with the geometric perfection of classical Greek vases. Most Sung bowls and vases are covered with largely monochromatic glazes, with decoration often incised or impressed under the glaze. Famous wares include the ivory-white Ting ware, descended from the famous white ware of the T'ang; jadelike \Tceladon\t, used for official and commercial purposes throughout China; sky-blue Ju ware, made for the imperial court of Hui-tsung; its relative, Chun ware, with the varying blue of its thick glaze often enlivened by submerged swirls of purple; small, heavily potted Chien ware tea bowls, with dark red, brown, and black glazes speckled over coarse clay; slip-painted and sgraffito Tz'u-chou wares, with superbly vigorous floral and pictorial decoration. These and other regional wares evolved strong artistic personalities; most have been traditionally associated with single kiln sites, hence their names, but they are now known to have been made in many places. The technical perfection of Sung ceramics was largely based on the Sung artisan's mastery of a simple, iron-pigmented, feldspathic glaze. Depending on the firing, it varies from the rich black of saturated oxidation, through deep red, to endlessly subtle green shades of reduction. Not until the Mongol conquest of China and the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) did the use of other minerals in feldspathic glazes become dominant. Ming and Ch'ing Wares The blue-and-white ware resulting from cobalt pigment, originally imported from Iran during the Yuan period, initiated another great era in ceramics production that reached its peak in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Many of the Sung wares had been stonewares, but most of the important Ming and Ch'ing (1644-1911) wares were porcelain. The potters of blue-and-white ware perfected a method of painting with cobalt under a transparent glaze. Their decorative skills reached the highest refinement and complexity and their products were exported eastward and westward in large quantities, immensely influencing European and Near Eastern wares. The town of \TChing-te-chen\t, in Kiangsi province, became the center for imperial Ming kilns. In the Ch'ing dynasty, under the K'ANG-HSI emperor (r. 1662-1722), these kilns were reorganized and commenced a final golden age, culminating under the Ch'ien-lung emperor, Kao-tsung (r. 1736-95). Numerous decorative styles were perfected by imperial potters and their provincial cousins during the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties. New monochromes, such as yellow and red, were developed, as were a magnificent range of multicolored, overglaze enamels. From the 18th century on, Ch'ing porcelains decorated in famille rose (rose pink), verte (pastel green), and noire (black) filled the mansions of China and Europe alike. Much of the Chinese porcelain intended for export was decorated with European-inspired motifs and in many cases was made according to European order. SCULPTURE Sculpture of the Shang (c.1600-c.1027 BC) and Chou (c.1027-256 BC) periods is generally small in scale, carved in marble and other materials, and depicts human or animal forms. Such sculpture was presumably intended for ritual use. Burial Sculpture During the Han dynasty (202 BC-AD 8) sculptures associated with the veneration of the dead were produced in great quantities. These burial sculptures were of three types. The first category is the low-relief sculpture used to decorate the walls of the burial chamber, mostly representing scenes of daily life. The second category consists of small fired-clay sculptures that were placed inside the tomb. These objects reproduce in small scale an amazing spectrum of the everyday world of the Han period, from castles and other architectural forms to barnyard pets. This tradition reached its apogee during the T'ang (618-906). Although the subject matter became more limited than in the Han, the sculptural quality of T'ang mortuary ware is unsurpassed in its mastery of naturalistic modeling. Figures of dancers, polo players, and horses were imbued with an extraordinary sense of life and movement. The cosmopolitan culture of Ch'ang-an, the T'ang capital, with its camels and western merchants, also was depicted in these tomb models. The third category of burial sculpture is the monumental carved statuary of animals and guardian figures that line the processional ways leading to important tombs. Much more small mortuary sculpture has survived from the Han and the T'ang than has monumental statuary of the same periods. Although the relationship between the two traditions is not yet clearly understood, mortuary ware was possibly the earliest source for works of monumental sculpture. Recent excavations at the tumulus of the First Emperor of Ch'in (d. 210 BC), near Sian in Shensi province, have revealed a vast field of life-size terra-cotta statues depicting soldiers, servants, and horses, estimated to total 6,000 pieces. A sense of great realism is conveyed in the figures with remarkable simplicity. Their size and style is very different from the mortuary sculpture of the succeeding Han period. Buddhist Sculpture By far the largest body of Chinese sculptural art is associated with \TBuddhism\t, which reached China from India some time in the 3d century AD. From then through the T'ang period, Buddhism flourished in China, combining with indigenous traditions in thought and art. Sites such as the cave temples of \TTun-huang\t, an oasis town at the gateway between China and Central Asia, vividly preserve in murals, monumental stone sculpture, bronze Buddha images, and even silk banners the development of Chinese Buddhism between the 5th and 9th centuries. The first mature phase of Chinese Buddhist sculpture dates from the early 6th century and is characterized by highly spiritualized images of the Buddha, such as the famous gilt-bronze statuette of Shakyamuni Buddha (Metropolitan Museum, New York), dated from the Northern Wei dynasty (386-535). In the later 6th and the 7th centuries Chinese sculpture underwent many chronological and regional variations, relating to both external and internal influences. Early in the 8th century these culminated in the flowering of an international style, which spread from India across to China, through Korea and into Japan. In this family of styles, the body is endowed with a tightly structured, muscular presence, articulated with graceful ease, and lightly clothed in garments which may both cling to its form and swirl loosely free. The confident grandeur of the limestone Seated Buddha from Tien-lung-shan (8th century; now in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass.), still imbued with a spiritual idealization, is superbly expressive of the golden age of T'ang. In addition to stone, such statues were also made of clay, wood, bronze, and lacquer, although few examples survive. In 845 a nationwide persecution of Buddhism destroyed the majority of Buddhist temples and their contents. Fine Buddhist sculpture was again made in the Sung (960-1279), Yuan (1279-1368), and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties, although it never again reached its former stature. ARCHITECTURE With the exception of the monumental rock-cut cave temples, such as those constructed at Tun-huang, \TLung-men\t, and \TYun-kang\t, the temples associated with Buddhist sculptures were not built for permanence, and few have survived. Most architecture, both religious and secular, was constructed primarily of wood, on a simple post-and-lintel basis that favored marvelous elaboration. Important exceptions were the celebrated \TGreat Wall of China\t, built during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) on the foundations of a 3d-century BC defensive wall, and \Lpagoda\ls, tombs, and bridges constructed of stone or brick. The Chinese could build well with these materials; they were particularly advanced in certain forms of arch construction. Architectural form remained basically the same for well over 2,000 years. Burial-ware models provide considerable evidence from the Han dynasty (202 BC-AD 220). Illustrations engraved on bronze vessels and other archaeological remains provide even earlier evidence. Instead of supporting the roof with a rigidly triangulated truss as in the Western timber-frame construction, the Chinese did so with crossbeams in tiers of diminishing length. This was an extremely flexible system, promoting both a great extension of the eaves and the concave roof line so typical of Chinese architecture. The overhanging eaves were supported by a series of cantilevered brackets. The many elements of this wood frame were often elaborately painted and the roof itself covered with colorfully glazed tiles. The curved roof and complex structural bracket style in architecture reached its peak in the Sung dynasty (960-1279). A few temple buildings still survive from that period. In the Ming (1368-1644) and Ch'ing (1644-1911) periods, the roof line tended to straighten. The brackets became largely decorative and the buildings more static and massive in proportion, with a greater use of masonry. A sharply curved roof was still used in small, fanciful pavilions. Little architecture of the Ming period and scarcely any of earlier periods has survived. An important exception is the so-called Forbidden City, the former imperial palace in Peking. It was built by the Mongol rulers of the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) in the district where several earlier dynasties had located their capitals. The Ming entirely rebuilt the complex, as did the succeeding Ch'ing rulers to a large extent. The succession of shining, tiled roofs and the hierarchic arrangement of seemingly endless courtyards, corridors, and halls were designed as the representation of a vast cosmic order. TWENTIETH-CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS Chinese art, especially painting and calligraphy, showed remarkable vitality and a new spirit of innovation throughout the 19th and well into the 20th century. From the early 1900s, Western influences were openly acknowledged. After the establishment of the Communist state in 1949, however, the authorities refused to tolerate any taint of the West in Chinese art except for \Tsocialist realism\t, imported from the \TUSSR\t. The 1980s saw a sporatic softening of official attitudes. Some Chinese avant-garde artists have been allowed to exhibit, and a few Western artists have shown their works in China. Subjects that were once forbidden--nudes, for example, or portraits of the poor--may sometimes be shown without official censure. Artists interested in Western genres experiment in their studios with cubism, surrealism, and abstract art; many are attracted by such realist painters as Andrew Wyeth. Few succeed, however, in giving a Chinese aspect to their borrowings from the West. Since 1980 there has been a significant exodus of artists from China to the West. Perhaps they will be able to establish modern idioms that are truly Chinese. JOHN HAY Bibliography: Bush, S., and Murck, C., eds., Theories of the Arts in China (1983); Cahill, James, Chinese Painting (1960; repr. 1972); Cohen, J. L., The New Chinese Painting, 1949-1986 (1987); Ellsworth, R. H., Later Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 1800-1950, 3 vols. (1987); Grousset, Rene, Chinese Art and Culture (1959); Jenyns, R. Soame, ed., Chinese Art, 4 vols. (1960-65); Juliano, A., Treasures of China (1981); Loehr, M., The Great Painters of China (1980); Medley, Margaret, A Practical History of Chinese Ceramics (1978); Munsterberg, Hugo, The Arts of China (1972); Sickman, Laurence C. S., and Soper, Alexander, The Art and Architecture of China, 3d ed. (1968); Silcock, Arnold, Introduction to Chinese Art and History (1948); Speiser, Werner, The Art of China: Spirit and Society, trans. by George Lawrence (1960); Ssu-ch'eng, L., A Pictorial History of Chinese Architecture (1984); Sullivan, Michael, The Arts of China, 3d ed. (1984); Watson, William, Style in the Arts of China (1975) and Art of Dynastic China (1983); Willetts, William, Foundations of Chinese Art from Neolithic Pottery to Modern Architecture (1965).