Landscape in Chinese painting. Artist Hong Leung - mesmerizing landscapes of China

The purpose of the Chinese art paintings is to express the essence of the subject, and not just the external similarity. Chinese masters painted not real landscapes, but imaginary, ideal worlds.

Such a picture, made in the traditions of Chinese painting, encourages thinking about the high.

Chinese landscape painting is a kind of surrealistic artwork comparable to Dali paintings in European painting.

But, unlike many European paintings, the creations of Chinese artists are executed deep meaning, are symbolic and have a special energy. The manner of their writing is also very different from the European one.

This is very ancient art which has become more and more perfect over time. Until now, Chinese artists remain true to the traditions of the past.

When a master paints a picture, he will never correct it. Because of this, his work can be called a spontaneous work of art.

But much more interesting is the preliminary work that the artist does before painting the picture. This work is called “finding qi”. In order to capture the energy of life that blooms in the morning, and to express it in the plot of the picture, the artist must first merge with the plot.

The paintings of Chinese masters always have a contemplative mood.

Calm mental contemplation of the plot and the distinction of beauty in it - this is the practice that true masters of the brush resort to.

The traditional subjects of Chinese paintings are birds and flowers, landscapes, portraits and animals.

Pictures of nature

For centuries, landscapes constituted the bulk of Chinese painting. They are familiar to anyone who considers himself a lover of Chinese art. Contemplative, enigmatic and puzzling, they have always captured the imagination of Westerners and have been painted by Chinese masters in their original form for thousands of years.

The harsh mountains of these paintings are simple in nature, but it takes time and effort to understand such a picture.

The main elements of Chinese paintings are mountains, waterfalls and rivers. The Chinese themselves call such painting mountain-water.

The mountain is the heart of the Chinese landscape. It is in the center of a vast landscape, rushing upwards to heaven. In other paintings, the mountains are a steep monolith of greenery, covered with rocky rocks and ridges.

The fog surrounding the mountains symbolizes the spiritual space that the viewer has to fill.

The landscape surrounding the mountain invites the viewer to take part in its beauty and reflect on the meaning of the mountain, or sometimes on the vast emptiness around it.

The fog surrounding the mountain is a spiritual dimension that the viewer has to fill while contemplating the landscape.

According to traditional Chinese beliefs, mountains are considered sacred. Immortals live in them, and their blocks are so close to heaven, both in the spiritual and physical sense.

A sense of balance in the picture is brought by other elements of the landscape - paths and rivers. They plow the space of the picture, directing the contemplator to the mountain.

Sometimes, despite the fact that there is a mountain in the center of the picture, the stars and the Moon will be the real soul of the work. Often on mountain-water landscapes there are such elements as boats, stones, trees, buildings, people, sun, temples. They are just a tiny part of a vast landscape.

Calligraphy can also be present in nature paintings. It's a poetry. They complement the landscape and explain it.

The contemplation of such a picture really suggests how small people are in the vast and great expanse of the universe.

Chinese landscape painting is closely related to

The landscape most clearly defined the face of medieval Chinese culture. In China, much earlier than in other countries, a kind of aesthetic discovery of nature was made and landscape painting appeared. Formed at the dawn of the Middle Ages, it not only became an expression of the spiritual ideal of the time, but also carried its stable traditions through the ages, preserving them to our time, without losing either poetry or a living connection with the world. Despite the unusualness of the artistic language, it still excites us with a deep poetic penetration into the natural world, the subtlety of its understanding, the sincerity of feeling. Vigilance, unmistakable accuracy of the drawing, the desire of artists to comprehend the world in its diversity constitute the strength and charm of Chinese traditional art. landscape painting, which makes us, when meeting with her, experience emotional excitement.

R The early appearance of the landscape in Chinese art is associated with the special relationship of man to nature, which developed in antiquity. In China - a country of high mountains and large rivers, where the life of the farmer depended entirely on the will of the elements, and man himself was considered as part of nature - the natural world very early became the subject of philosophical reflection. The inevitable repetition of natural cycles, the change of seasons and moods of nature, associated with human life, is already in ancient times explained by the interaction of the two most important polar principles: passive dark and active light, feminine and masculine - yin and yang.

Li Zhaodao. Travelers in the mountains.
Fragment of a scroll on silk.
Late 7th - early 8th century Palace Museum Collection, Taiwan

The harmony of the Universe was determined by the creative union of these two great forces of the universe, and the cycle of nature was represented as a result of the alternation of five elements (water, wood, fire, metal and earth), each of which corresponded to the side of the world, the season.

Mountains and water in the minds of the Chinese embodied the most important forces of the universe - energy and peace, activity and passivity. The Chinese worshiped them as shrines. The very concept of the landscape "shan shui" came from a combination of two hieroglyphs: "shan" - mountain, and "shui" - water. Thus, the main motifs of the Chinese landscape were fixed in the very term "shan shui" and the basic concepts of ancient natural philosophy were embodied.

The originally established system of symbols and forms gradually developed and became more complex. Images of nature, at first abstractly symbolic, and then more and more alive and spiritual, took the main place in art. At a very early stage in China, all human life began to be commensurate with nature, through which people tried to comprehend the laws of being.

Of course, the landscape did not exhaust the whole variety of genres of Chinese medieval painting. significant place also belonged to everyday painting, focused on showing the life and various activities of the court nobility. Between different genres there was a certain separation of emotional spheres. Full of interest in the daily life of a person, moralizing topics, conversations and walks of the courtiers genre painting drew plots in stories, novels, didactic prose, while landscape painting, affecting the spheres of philosophy and high feelings, to which nothing petty and accidental was mixed, sought consonance in poetry.

O a tremendous influence on the formation of the spiritual life of medieval China was exerted by three established in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. philosophical teachings - Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, which played a crucial role in the development of all Chinese medieval art and especially landscape painting. Each of them covered its own area of ​​problems. Confucianism, which arose in the VI-V centuries. BC. as an ethical and moral doctrine, sought to substantiate and strengthen the established order in the state. Based on the laws of patriarchal antiquity, it established a whole system of rules for various types of art and developed stable traditions in the field of history, music, poetry and painting.

Unlike Confucianism, Taoism, which also arose in the 6th-5th centuries. BC, focused on the laws that prevail in nature. The main place in this doctrine was occupied by the theory of the universal law of nature - "tao". Understood as the path of the Universe, the eternal circulation of processes taking place on earth and in the sky, the category of "tao" has taken one of the main places in the philosophy and art of China. The founder of the Lao Tzu doctrine believed that the main goal of a person is to comprehend his unity and harmony with the world, that is, to follow the path of "tao". The calls of the Taoists to escape from the hustle and bustle, to the unpretentious life of a hermit in a thicket of forests among the mountains, contributed to the awakening in a person of contemplation, a poetic view of the world.

Buddhism, which became widespread in China in the 4th-5th centuries, adopted many of the tenets of Taoism. Both Buddhism and Taoism preached detachment from worldly fuss, a contemplative way of life, complemented each other and, together with Confucianism, acted for centuries as inseparable sides of a single Chinese culture.

P The constant appeal to nature as a source of gaining wisdom has formed a special pantheistic spatial thinking of the Chinese people. It manifested itself both in architecture and in painting. The architecture and landscape painting of medieval China were deeply related. Both architecture, based on the solution of broad spatial problems, and painting were, as it were, different forms of expression of common ideas about the world, subject to general laws. Like a Chinese landscape painter, Chinese architects perceived their palaces and temples as an integral part of the boundless natural ensemble.

Subtle understanding of features national nature helped painters develop their own unique techniques that generalize the laws of painting. In the course of a long search, they found a peculiar form of long, ribbon-shaped, horizontally and vertically oriented scroll paintings that help them show the world in its universal immensity. Such silk or paper, sometimes multi-meter strips, pasted on a thick paper base after work and rolled around a wooden roller, were stored in special elegant cases and taken out only for examination. Painting a landscape painting was considered a sacred act.

The artist, using brush, ink and water-based mineral paints that easily penetrate paper and silk, worked quickly, without making adjustments, using time-tested methods - each position of the hand and hand of the master corresponded to the peculiarities of the calligraphic line, sometimes sharp and brittle, sometimes flexible and fluid. . There was a close relationship between painting and calligraphy. The combination of line and spot with the surface of silk or paper was one of the secrets of the expressiveness and associative richness of Chinese landscape scroll paintings.

Mastery of nuances, combined with the sharpness and power of the stroke, helped to convey a sense of the quivering of plants, the airiness of distances, the state of movement and peace in nature. Horizontal scrolls-tales and scrolls-journeys were likened to a story, they were gradually read, unfolding in hands, and required a long time to get used to the plot. Vertical scrolls were hung for viewing on the wall and helped the eye to cover at once the expanses depicted on them. Both included calligraphic text inserts that complemented and deepened the thought, expressed by the artist, bringing new decorative accents to the picture.

And full of deep symbolic meaning, the Chinese landscape "shan shui" was never written directly from nature and was not an accurate depiction of any area. It was rather a poetic image summarizing the artist's idea of ​​nature in its various states, characteristic features of the Chinese landscape.

The language of painting and the language of poetry in China were unusually closely interconnected. The world, seen through the eyes of a Chinese artist in its immensity and harmonious unity, was built according to special laws developed over the centuries. The landscape, placed on a long horizontal or vertical scroll, was comprehended by the master as if from a bird's eye view and was visually distant from a person. It was divided according to the echelon principle into several plans raised above each other, which is why distant objects turned out to be the highest, and the horizon rose to an unusual height.

The closest shot with clearly drawn details - trees, stones and shrubs - occupied the lower part of the picture and was separated from the far shots by an expanse of water, clouds or a veil of fog, creating a feeling of air, space, a huge distance between them. The composition of the scroll was, as it were, open-ended, had no clearly defined boundaries, and the viewer conjectured what he saw with his imagination, completing what the artist suggested to him with a hint. The linear perspective characteristic of European landscapes was replaced here by a diffuse one. The artist introduced the fourth dimension into painting - the temporal beginning, forcing the viewer to wander along with him through the picture and join all the changes that take place in nature. The feeling of the immensity of the world was enhanced by the inclusion in the composition of tiny figures of travelers with luggage or hermits wandering along a winding mountain path, fishermen frozen in their fragile boats.

In the majestic picture of the world constructed by a medieval Chinese painter, each object was raised to the level of a symbol, evoking many associations. Few pictorial techniques in the picture could convey the autumn silence, the cries of flying birds, the spring revival of nature.

As early as the 8th century, Chinese painters, along with transparent mineral paints, began to use one black ink, the silvery-gray nuances of which helped them to convey with particular completeness the feeling of unity and wholeness of the world. The pressure of the brush, the clarity of the lines and the softness of the washes allowed them to achieve in such monochrome paintings the impression of colorful diversity, color harmony, airiness and depth. The white matte surface of the scroll could be perceived by the eye as a watery surface, and as a heavenly expanse, and as a foggy haze enveloping the mountains.

H Not all Chinese paintings depicting nature can be called landscapes. Next to the classical monumental form of images of mountains and waters, other, more chamber forms were formed - small and full of colorful details, fragments of nature or private manifestations of its life. These include a very popular genre of painting today - “flowers-birds”, which includes a huge and diverse world of plants, animals, birds and insects.

Lee Kang. Bamboo.Ink on paper. 13th century Art Gallery, Kansas City

Zhao Mengfu. Sheep and goat.
Ink on paper. The end of the XIII - the beginning of the XIV century. Smithsonian Institution, Washington

In the works of this genre, the philosophical idea “great in the small” was vividly reflected, revealing the Buddhist-Taoist idea that the soul of the Universe is contained in every even insignificant and inconspicuous part of nature. The vast world of symbols and folk beliefs, wishes of happiness, goodness and wealth was associated in ancient China with images of plants, birds and trees. Thus, the peony was considered a sign of wealth, the meihua plum blossoming at the very beginning of spring was a sign of vitality, bamboo symbolized the wisdom of a scientist, pine with its evergreen needles was associated with longevity. But every small manifestation of nature, whether it be a blade of grass on which a bug crawls, or a withered lotus stem, was perceived by artists not as something isolated, but as part of a great single world.

Yuan Shouping. Peony.
17th century State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

On the basis of this, an understanding of technical means, common with the landscape, and the perception of the neutral background of the picture as a spatial environment in which the depicted object lives were formed. Transparent water colors or black ink with its subtle gradation of shades corresponded to the lightness and freedom of the image. The mastery of the linear stroke, combined with ink spots, replaced chiaroscuro, creating the illusion of volume. The expressiveness of the line itself was the main criterion for the artistic value of the work.

Qi Baishi. Chickens at the palm tree.
Paper, ink. Late 19th – early 20th century
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

This feature of traditional Chinese painting, which developed over a long period of the Middle Ages, has not lost its vitality up to the present. In the many-sided, contradictory and impetuous flow of modern life, these traditions, which have settled down for centuries and become classics, have largely retained their viability. The secret of their strength lies in the flexibility and diversity of the artistic language, understandable and close to the people, capable of constantly being filled with new content.

The entire history of Chinese landscape painting, up to the beginning of the 20th century, is a chain of searches and discoveries of means of artistic expression for a wide reflection in art of human ideas about the world.

AT In ancient times, nature was for the inhabitants of China something formidable, dominating their lives. At the same time, she was also a generous giver of life's blessings, giving people warmth, shelter and food. In ritual utensils and on the walls of the tombs, the forces of nature were imprinted in conventional signs-symbols. They were: a bird, a dragon, a cicada, patterns of thunder, lightning and clouds. In the period of the early Middle Ages (4th-5th centuries), poets and artists of China, under the influence of Taoist and Buddhist ideas, began to perceive nature not only from the utilitarian side, but also in its aesthetic significance, the ability to excite, to be in tune with the spiritual states of man.

Already the earliest scrolls that have come down to us, written by the artist Gu Kaizhi (344–406), show that lyrical motifs associated with nature, unknown in the past, penetrated into Chinese narrative painting, which originated before landscape painting. This is evidenced by the master’s painting “The Fairy of the Luo River”, created as an illustration for the poem by Cao Zhi (192–232) and tells about the spirit of a young girl who lives in the Luo River and fell in love with an earthly person. In a long horizontal scroll, which includes a number of separate scenes, the conditional landscape, which unites the composition and is introduced as a background, creates a general atmosphere, helps to reveal the mood of the poem. The elusive beauty of human feelings was first revealed by the painter through the display of nature.

Gu Kaizhi. Fairy River Lo. 4th century Freer Art Gallery, Washington

The development of aesthetic thought was also new for Chinese art of that time. With the participation of Gu Kaizhi, the first theoretical rules for painting paintings began to be developed, which from the 5th century. were summarized and formulated by the artist and art theorist Xie He in the "Six Laws of Painting", where the main requirements were to convey not so much external resemblance as internal awe, the breath of life. Expressed in short formulas, these rules were commented on and used by Chinese painters throughout the Middle Ages.

X Although landscape motifs as a background were found in the works of artists of the 4th-5th centuries, the landscape as an independent genre took shape only by the 7th century. and was widely developed only in the VIII-X centuries.

The features of Chinese landscape painting were able to manifest themselves most fully and most vividly during the period of unification of the country and the creation of two large empires - Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279), whose cultural achievements, with many features of difference, left a brilliant mark in history. The rise experienced a variety of areas of creativity - architecture and painting, sculpture and applied arts, poetry and prose. The Tang state, active in its policy of conquest, maintained ties with many countries, absorbed many phenomena from outside into its culture. The art of the Tang period was also imbued with a look in breadth, with a powerful creative pathos. Huge, populous, festive and flourishing is the world shown in the wall paintings of Buddhist temples, in paintings on scrolls.

The Sung culture developed in a completely different historical setting. The conquests of the nomads first cut off the northern regions of the country, and in the XIII century. Mongols subjugated the rest of the state. In 1127, in connection with the relocation of the capital to the south, to Hangzhou, the Sung period broke up into two different stages - the North Sung (960–1127) and the South Sung (1127–1279).

The people of the Sung time are characterized by a dramatic worldview different from the previous one. Internal problems took first place in their lives, interest in everything local, their nature, their legends increased. Feeling, imagination, philosophical view of the world distinguish the artists and poets of the Sung period. They rethink the ancient philosophy and create a new teaching - neo-Confucianism, which is based on the idea that the world is one, man and nature are one.

During the Tang and Song periods, the form of vertical and horizontal scrolls was established and canonized in accordance with various artistic tasks. In the Tang period, with its interest in everyday writing, preference was given to horizontal scrolls, in the Song period, with its craving for philosophical generalizations, vertical ones,

Tang landscapes are filled with life-affirming pathos and enthusiastic admiration for the beauty and grandeur of the world. They are narrative, wordy, and full of architectural details. Chronicles have preserved for us the names of famous Tang landscape painters. The most prominent among them were Li Sixun (651–716), his son Li Zhaodao (670–730) and Wang Wei (699–775), both a poet and an artist. Their work shows how diverse the tasks of landscape painting were already at that time.

P The landscapes of Li Sixun and Li Zhaodao are bright and saturated in color, reminiscent of oriental miniatures with their precious radiance of colors and clear contours. Blue and malachite-green mountains are surrounded by a golden border, many details are included in the composition. Reality serves the painter as material for those hyperbolic forms into which his inspiration flows. Huge mountains are contrasted with the scale of people interspersed with bright small spots at their foot.

The landscapes of Wang Wei, an artist who developed already in the next century and was strongly influenced by the teachings of the Buddhist sect of Chan, which developed at that time, denied the external, front side of Buddhism and preached the contemplation of nature as a way to comprehend the truth, are soft and airy. In them, everything is much more subordinated to the lyrical mood. Wang Wei looks at the world through the eyes of a contemplator and a poet, and this explains his new painting style. He refuses a multi-color palette, writes only in black ink with blurs, achieving through tonal unity the impression of the integrity of the world.

As a painter, he was the first to find a visible form for those emotions that were embodied in his poems. Wang Wei brings together the images of painting and poetry so much that contemporaries said: "His poems are like pictures, and his paintings are like poems." The importance attached to landscape painting by Wang Wei in the spiritual life of a person is evidenced by the inspirational lines of the treatise “Secrets of Painting” written by him: “Distant figures are all without mouths, distant trees are without branches. Distant peaks - without stones. They are like eyebrows, thin, cramped. Distant currents - without a wave; they are equal in height with the clouds. Such is the revelation!” Wang Wei, as it were, predetermined the paths new era in painting, when the first stage of joyful knowledge of nature was replaced by the search for deep philosophical generalizations about the meaning of being.

The multi-colored clear style of Li Sixun and Li Zhaodao laid the foundation for a direction called "gongbi" (careful brushwork). Wang Wei's monochrome style, with its understatement, underlined airiness of space, was called "sei" (literally - writing an idea).

M Wang Wei's anera turned out to be the closest to the painters of the subsequent Song period, who, striving mainly to convey the unity and harmony of nature, went even further in their search. It was in the post-Tang period in China that the main discoveries were made in the field of the spatial construction of paintings, their constructional rhythm, tonality, and depth of feelings.

The image of nature is separated from everything private. Space is understood by artists as a symbol of the infinity of the world. The crowdedness characteristic of the Tang landscapes has disappeared. The human figures of travelers, fishermen or hermits are so small that they only emphasize the natural power. The world depicted in the paintings of Fang Kuan (X - early XI century), Guo Xi (XI century) and Xu Daoning is harsh and powerful. It appears boundless and huge, full of majestic peace. Through the beauty of nature, artists tell about the harmony of the universe.

Fang Quan. Travelers at the mountain stream.
Scroll on silk. End of X - beginning of XI century. Palace Museum Collection, Taiwan

The paintings of the Sung painters are monochrome, that is, they are written in one black ink with blurs. Mountains and rivers, waterfalls and quiet lakes, lost among the mountain peaks - everything is captured in the paintings of the Sung painters with great expressive power. So, as if recreating in memory his long journey along the Yellow River, Guo Xi captures throughout his horizontal scroll, called “Autumn in the Yellow River Valley”, everything that passed before his eyes - mountains, autumn trees, huts drowned in waves autumn fog. Infinitely distant and diverse is this grandiose landscape, as if seen by the artist from above.

The whole landscape is built on the nuances of ink - sometimes light and airy, sometimes lying on silk with heavy, strong strokes. They are so thoughtful in their rhythmic variety, so rich in their tonality that the viewer perceives the black color of the carcass as a colorful range of the real world, subject to a single mood. The unfilled space of the scroll creates a feeling of vast air space.

Chinese artists of the 10th-11th centuries were looking for different ways to convey the life of nature. In addition to large landscape scrolls, small landscape compositions arose at this time, which served as decoration for fans and screens. The idea of ​​the unity of the world was expressed both through the majestic landscape and through its small fragments. Such miniatures were especially loved at the court in the capital's Academy of Painting, where the emperor himself acted as an artist and collector. Albums were created from small paintings painted on silk and paper, where the life of flowers or animals, plants and insects was captured. For each small scene, poetic names were invented, often it was supplemented by poems by famous poets.

AT At the end of the 11th - beginning of the 12th centuries, several trends of painting had already developed in Chinese landscape painting, differently understanding the tasks of depicting the life of nature, but on the whole forming a single style of the era. These areas included the artist-scientists of the Wenzhenhua group of amateurs, poets and painters who were not part of the Imperial Academy, the artist-monks of the Chan (contemplation) sect, who retired from worldly fuss, as well as members of the Imperial Academy who carried out orders from the court. Artist-scientists Su Shi and Mi Fei, who preached free creativity, and painters of the Chan sect with their desire for intuitive comprehension secret meaning things largely determined the tastes of the second half of the XI century.

The spirit of landscape painting underwent an even more significant change during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279), when, after the Jurchens captured the north of the country, the imperial court and the Academy of Painting moved south to Hangzhou. The epic landscapes at that time were replaced by a landscape much more intimate and close to people. Pain and suffering, bitter memories of lands dear to the heart intensified the loving attention of artists to their nature.

Xia Gui. Clear and distant streams and mountains.
Fragment of a scroll on paper. First half of the 13th century

The moods conveyed through the landscape by the painters of the Hangzhou Academy of Painting Li Di (XII century), Li Tan (XI-XII centuries), Ma Yuan (XII-XIII centuries) and Xia Gui (XII-XIII centuries) are fanned with great lyricism , sad and anxious. Artists paint small pictures, devoid of their former solemnity. The structure of the composition is changing, more and more gravitating towards asymmetry and airiness. "Shepherd with Buffaloes" - Li Di's painting depicting the snow-covered plains of the north, no longer includes either huge rocks or water streams. The eye easily covers all its small space. Sharp scale ratios disappear, and a greater place is given to a person - a contemplator and a poet in nature. This new inclusion of man in nature is especially noticeable in the paintings of Ma Yuan and Xia Gui. Often in their laconic, asymmetrical lyrical landscapes full of air, the gesture, posture or upturned head of the poet-contemplator further enhances the emotionality of the visual image.

The idea of ​​the fusion of man and nature is especially acute in the work of the painters of the Buddhist sect Chan-mu qi, whose paintings, full of allusions, dramatic tension, moved even further away from the decorative sonority of the Tang landscapes and the epic pathos of the Northern Sun landscapes. In painting, the Chan painters tried to catch what was suddenly and uniquely revealed to the eye in its natural freedom.

Numerous genres of painting continued to develop in the art of China throughout the Sung period. But landscape has always dominated among them. The thinking of the painters of this time can be called landscape, since it was through the landscape that the most important thoughts and feelings of the era were transmitted.

AT during the reign of the Mongolian Yuan dynasty (1279-1364), when the country was under foreign rule for almost a century, landscape painting was again filled with new feelings, acquired a new direction. Moods of despondency, nostalgia prevailed in it, notes of protest sounded. Having found refuge in distant provinces, the painters sought through the images of nature in an allegorical form to convey to the viewer their concerns.

Monochrome painting of the XIV century. achieved extraordinary sophistication and subtlety in conveying shades of mood. Special meaning acquired calligraphic inscriptions included in the composition, fraught with a hint, hidden subtext, understandable to the initiates. The images themselves were also symbolic. Most often, bamboo was depicted, bending under a heavy wind, but not breaking and straightening up again. He personified a strong spirit, a noble person, able to withstand the cruel blows of fate.

Ni Zan. Landscape.
1362. Ink on paper. Smithsonian Institution, Washington

The most lyrical and subtle painter of the Yuan period was Ni Zan (1301–1374), a calligrapher and poet who spent his life away from court in the provinces. His landscapes, painted on soft white paper with black ink, are simple and laconic. They usually show groups autumn trees and small islands lost in the expanse of water. With a thin, graceful line, the master recreates the fragile and transparent purity of autumn distances, always fanned by the mood of loneliness and sadness.

The largest among the court painters of the XIV century. were Zhao Mengfu and Wang Zhenpeng. The style of their work determined the tastes of the Mongolian nobility, with its inclination towards bright colors and everyday writing. Zhao Mengfu became famous for his landscape scrolls, made in the style of Tang decorative landscapes, including images of Mongol horsemen on the hunt.

The Ming period (1368-1644), which began after the liberation of the country from Mongol rule, entered the artistic life of China as a complex and controversial time. In the XV-XVI centuries. China is experiencing a period of economic and spiritual upsurge. Cities are growing and reviving, new architectural ensembles are being built, artistic crafts are distinguished by a huge variety. But by the 17th century the empire is in decline. In 1644, the country was in the hands of the Manchus, who ruled until 1911.

With the accession of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, a new and far from unambiguous stage in the development of Chinese culture began. Although the Manchus sought to increase the splendor and splendor of Chinese cities, they primarily relied on the foundations of conservative feudal traditions and sought to regulate human life. The painting of China during the late Middle Ages reflected all the contradictory ways of developing the culture of the Ming and Qing periods. These contradictions were especially acute in landscape painting, which responded to the events of the time.

The revival of Chinese statehood after the age-old domination of the Mongols largely determined its direction. The desire to revive the artistry and spiritual conquests of the past, to preserve the original traditions led the official circles to orient artists to imitate the past. The newly opened Academy of Painting tried to forcibly revive the former splendor of Tang and Sung painting. Artists were constrained by prescriptions for topics, plots and methods of work. The disobedient were severely punished. However, the sprouts of the new still made their way.

Dai Jing. The return of travelers in a thunderstorm. 15th century

For almost six centuries of the domination of the Ming and Qing dynasties, many talented painters worked in China, as a rule, they were in opposition to the Academy of Painting and belonged to the group of free artists-scientists of the “wenzhenhua” direction. Away from the capital, in the south of the country, various art schools were formed, freer from the pressure of the official authorities. The founders of these schools - Dai Jin (mid-15th century) - Zhejiang, Shen Zhou (1427-1507) and Wen Zhengming (1470-1559) - Suzhou, while remaining within the tradition, managed to create a number of majestic landscapes made in the manner of Ma Yuan and Xia Gui, but distinguished by greater fragmentation and an abundance of details.

Shen Zhou. Landscape with a traveler. 1485

In search of renewal of the genre of landscape and the genre of "flowers and birds", other artists also came forward. Among them, Xu Wei (1521–1593) showed himself most actively, striving to overcome the eclecticism and cold virtuosity cultivated at the Academy of Painting. The sketchy bold and unexpected compositions created by him in the spirit of the masters of the Chan sect opposed the intuition of the cold predetermined requirements of the court. Impetuous, sharp, sometimes deliberately careless landscapes, paintings depicting bamboo branches, juicy bunches of grapes concealed a large capacity of images. In the seeming randomness of fragments of nature, the artist has always been able to capture the dynamics of the life of the world. Behind the deliberate carelessness of the ink stains, one can feel the great skill of the artist, recreating rhythms that are in tune with his temperament.

H and the stage that completed the development of Chinese feudalism (XVII-XVIII centuries), with the greatest sharpness, the depth of the gap between rationalism academic schemes and new directions that meet the challenges of the time.

Known by the nickname Badashanzhen (Blessed hermit from the mountains), the artist Zhu Da (1625-1705) and Shi Tao (1630-1717) - the successors of the traditions of the monks of the Chan sect, who retired to the monastery after the conquest of the country by the Manchus, in their small but bold allegorical album sketches , which depicts either a ruffled bird on a bare tree branch, or a broken lotus stem, moved even further away from academic landscapes.

Zhu Yes. Two birds on a dry tree.
Mid 17th century Paper, ink. Sumitomo Collection, Okso, Japan

In the XVIII century. group of artists, called "Yangzhou eccentrics" (they were Luo Ping, Zheng Xie, Li Shan and others) continued this tradition. Their works, executed in the spirit of "rules without rules", marked by simplicity, freedom and freshness, differed markedly from the dryness and congestion of the capital's court painting.

In the XIX-XX centuries. this line was continued by the painters Chen Shizeng (1876–1924), Wu Changshi (1842–1927), Ren Bongyan (1840–1896), and then Qi Baishi (1860–1957), Huang Binhong (1864–1955) and Pan Tianshou (1897). –1972), who managed to build a bridge from the past to the present.

Visually and emotionally bringing nature closer to man, they continued the same line of expressive and unexpected interpretation of it, which was started by Xu Wei, Shi Tao and Zhu Da. At the same time, they moved away from the mystical anxiety and tension of feelings characteristic of the latter, striving for simplicity and accessibility of images.

With the apparent proximity to medieval images, the paintings of these artists, with their juicy earthly fruits, bright colors and noisy flocks of sparrows, marked already qualitatively new stage in the development of Chinese landscape and painting of flowers and birds.

The genres of landscape, painting of flowers and birds beloved by the Chinese people, despite all the changes in life and stylistic trends, have retained their viability even today due to their exceptional capacity and ability to assimilate new ideas.

- What colors, and I want to plunge into all this nature!

- Incredibly bright. Feel the style of the artist. Asians have always been good at making quality paintings.

– The rainbow spilled into the heavenly corners of nature... It “dirtyed” the snow-white sailboats, blinded the eyes accustomed to gray everyday life, pleased, lifted the soul high, high, and then threw it from a height into the water, raising fine colorful water dust, dispersing it around ...

– The paintings are magnificent, they fascinate with juicy bright colors and delight with the skill of the artist. BUT talking about high art is still far away! "As far as China on foot", as they say!

- Great work! I have not seen such life-affirming, positive colors for a long time. It is immediately clear that everything is fine in the soul of the artist. Pleasant to the eye and heart, but lately - that it’s not work, it’s some kind of depression ...

– Almost all Asian artists have one recognizable style... It does not seem? Nevertheless, I liked it.

- All this looks like children's "coloring books", the pictures are flat ... there is no painting here.

- Very beautiful pictures, how rich the inner world of the artist must be in order to write such things. Such a picture will illuminate and energize any corner.

- I wonder if this is reality or fantasy, or maybe both? Very impressive! And I immediately want to go there to this world of beauty and purity, but unfortunately this does not happen.

- This is called national self-identity, education in traditions. Europeans also have a recognizable style. I would say that the European school has a slightly straightforward style, to draw either what they see (like photographs, which is not good), or fall into insanity (such as the paintings of Dali and Malevich). Everything is in harmony in Asia.

- I always like to read comments on the works of artists: such as crap or the colors are gloomy, or the composition is not thought out. Firstly, create something similar yourself, and secondly: sometimes you come home a little drunk, paints, brushes, paper, what kind of composition is there, what happened, it happened, just feelings.

- He "simply" draws not landscapes, but images. Immediately what the real landscape "inside the brain" is transformed into after primary processing. There is another artist, though he worked at an even deeper level of images - N. Roerich.

- It's not about whether this picture is colorful or not, and to what end of the world it comes. Why pay attention to it? There are people who look for flaws in beauty, and you are one of those. But the pictures are really beautiful!

... further, ordinary commentators began to argue, and it all turned into swearing with personal insults and even obscenities - this is how it always happens at the level of ordinary untalented people with ordinary people who undertake to discuss high art and painting.

Gansu Province in northwest China is about the size of California. The diverse local landscapes and dramatic landscapes of Gansu Province include parts of the Gobi Desert, colorful mountains, remnants of the Silk Road, and parts of .

Why sand dunes “sing” is a mystery that has frightened and attracted people for many centuries. Amazing dune songs can only be heard in some regions the globe. Mysterious and frightening sounds were described by many famous travelers - Charles Darwin, Marco Paul and others. Experimentally, scientists have confirmed that sound appears when sand crumbles down from the crest of a dune.

When sand of different diameters rolls off the surface, a vibration of the sand is created, which "pushes" the sound, like a speaker membrane pushes air. Thousands of vibrations of grains of sand of different diameters create sounds of different heights, which add up to a monotonous rumble. (Photo by Feng Li):

Scientists Simon Degoe-Buy and his colleagues took up this issue. He recorded the sounds of several dunes and determined that they all sounded at the same frequency - 105 Hz, sometimes dropping to 90 Hz, or rising to 150 Hz.

How the dunes sing can be seen in this short video.

2. Rape fields in Gansu province, China, July 14, 2015. (Photo by SIPA Asia via ZUMA Wire | Wangjiang | Corbis):

4. Maijishan or "Wheat Mountain" - one of the largest Buddhist cave monasteries in China in the form of an anthill 142 meters high. The beginning of monastic life and the construction of the first caves date back to the period of the Late Qin dynasty (384-417). (Photo by Imaginechina | Corbis):

5. In total, there are 194 grottoes in the mountain: 54 - in the east, 140 - in the west. They are carved on the southern slope of the mountain, at a height of 80 m from the foot. Inside there are more than 7,200 clay and stone sculptures, over 1300 sq.m. frescoes that were created from the 4th to the 19th century. Here you can trace the stages of development of sculptural art in China. The tallest sculpture reaches a height of 16 m. (Photo by Imaginechina / Corbis):

6. Here goes the part. ( Photo Jason Lee | Reuters):

7. Autumn scenery on Mount Dongshan in Gansu province, October 7, 2015. (Photo by Chen Yonggang | Xinhua | Corbis):

8. Labrang - a monastery in the village of Labrang. Among other things, the monastery is a major educational center for Buddhism - a university with six faculties. (Photo by Carlos Barria | Reuters):

9. And here are the dramatic landscapes of China. The Yadan National Geological Park is located on the site former channel rivers 185 km away from the city of Dunhuang. With a length of 25 km, the park consists of many bizarrely shaped barren hillocks destroyed by the wind.

This is one of the rarest parks, you will hardly see such panoramas anywhere else. With the onset of dusk, when only rare howls of the wind are heard in complete silence, the sand figures seem to come to life. (Photo by Wang Song | Xinhua Press | Corbis):

10. Danxia landscape in China is a unique type of land surface, which is characterized by red sandstones and steep rocks created by nature. Under the starry sky, shot at a slow shutter speed, the landscape becomes especially mysterious. (Photo by Zhang Zirong | Imaginechina | Corbis):

11. Collection of salt. (Photo by Wang Jiang | Imaginechina | Corbis):

12. Solar eclipse over the Great Wall of China, August 1, 2008. (Photo by David Gray | Reuters):

13. Agricultural terraces. Plastic shields - protection of crops to retain heat and moisture. (Photo by Sheng Li | Reuters):

14. Motor boats on the Yellow River. (Photo by Jose Fuste Raga | Corbis):

15. The endless Gobi desert - one million three hundred thousand square kilometers covered with sand. Not far from Dunhuang is one of the shrines of Buddhism - Crescent Lake. It is surprisingly located in the very center of the singing sands in a lowland, which for many centuries, by some miracle, has been protected from huge dunes advancing from all sides.

The lake is shaped like a crescent. It is small in size, about 150 meters long, no more than 5 meters deep, but the water in it is so transparent that it looks like a gem.

Dunhuang used to be the center of the Silk Road and the center of trade between China and the West, but now Dunhuang is dependent on tourism. (Photo by Ed Jones):

17. Landscapes of Danxia - red sandstones and steep rocks created by nature. (Photo by Fan Peishen | Xinhua Press | Corbis):

18. Zhangye Danxia National Geopark. Known for its colorful cliffs, the park has been recognized by the Chinese media as one of the most beautiful landscape formations in China. (Photo by Imaginechina | Corbis):

20. Shepherd and the ancient city of Yongtai. (Photo by China Daily | Reuters):

21. Agricultural terraces in Gansu province, July 4, 2014. (Photo by Wang Song | Xinhua Press | Corbis):

22. Tibetan monks in the Labrang monastery, which we mentioned above. (Photo by Andy Wong):

23. Zhangye Danxia National Geopark. It is known for its unusual colors of the rocks, which are smooth, sharp and reach heights of several hundred meters. They are formed by deposits of sandstone and other minerals that have been formed here for 24 million years. (Photo by Sheng Li | Reuters):

24. Multi-colored mountains in China are found on the territory of several provinces in the southeastern and southwestern parts of the country. The world famous Danxia landscape is the object world heritage UNESCO. (Photo by Wang Song | Xinhua Press | Corbis):

Also see "" and "" - places inaccessible to the eyes of tourists.

China is one of the largest countries in the world. It will take a lot of time to carefully examine all its interesting places. Among the sights of China there are a lot of world-famous cultural, historical, natural and architectural sites. The country is so diverse that the southern regions are completely different from the northern ones. Just like the western parts are different from the eastern parts. In this article, we have tried to highlight the most interesting sights of China, which any tourist should visit when visiting this beautiful and diverse country.

1. Great Wall of China

Traveling in China, first of all, you need to visit the Great Wall of China. This is one of the greatest man-made structures of mankind, which can only be compared with the Great Pyramid of Giza. With an incredible length, it was located along the northern borders of the country and served to protect a vast border from sudden attacks by less civilized nomads from the north. Most of it was built ordinary people during the reign of the Ming Dynasty in the XII-XV centuries. Several sections of the wall are available for tourists, but the most popular and most visited is located just 70 kilometers north of Beijing. In this direction, there are enough sightseeing buses. In the middle of the last century, this site was specially restored for tourists. And in 1988, the entire Great Wall of China was included in the UNESCO heritage list.

2. Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is one of the most popular attractions in China. It is located almost in the very center, and in terms of area it occupies 72 hectares of land. It is very easy to compare it with the Vatican. The Forbidden City, from the very beginning of its construction in 1406, served as the residence of the ruling dynasties. First it was the Ming Dynasty, and later it was replaced by the Qing Dynasty. The rulers in a very short time erected protected buildings for themselves, completely separated from the general city. Strongly protected, they could rule the country for 500 years without fear for their safety. And only when the complex was included in the UNESCO heritage in 1987, access was opened for ordinary tourists from all over the world. 980 buildings built using wooden technology are simply impossible to inspect at a time. But the most interesting is always available.

3. Big Buddha in Hong Kong

This grandiose statue is located on Lantau Island and is different from others like it. The fact is that in the Chinese religion it is customary to install Buddha statues strictly looking towards the south. And the architectural creation at the Poulinsim Monastery looks to the north, as if blessing the city and its inhabitants. Located at a height of 482 meters, the statue rises an additional 34 meters, and has an approximate weight of about 250 tons. In order to get to it, you will first need to stand in line for the funicular, then climb 268 steps, and only then will you be able to touch the statue of the deity. The statue looks especially impressive on a cloudy day, when the Buddha breaks the clouds with his body and the sun's rays, suddenly appearing in the gap, cover the head of the statue with a halo of glow.

4. Temple of Heaven

If you are already in the capital of China, Beijing, then be sure to take the time to visit one of the best buildings from the Ming Dynasty. The dynasty built many interesting and noteworthy objects, but the Temple of Heaven is different from all. The fact is that every year the temple was simply obliged to visit the emperor personally. On the day of the winter solstice, he came to the building with one purpose - to ask the gods to send a decent harvest next season. If the harvest were meager, or it would not be enough for the whole country, then the gods would thus be angry with the heir, and thus show that it was time to change the ruler. The interior of this landmark of China is incredibly beautiful. Its unusual and bright mosaic will make you admire it for a single hour without taking your eyes off it.

5. Yonghegun

Yonghe Gong Temple is located in the northern part of the Forbidden City. It was built for a young future ruler named Yun. Literally, the name of the building can be translated as "the palace of harmony." Indeed, when Yun came to power, he tried to bring the country to prosperity and well-being, and not start wars with neighbors. The temple was originally different from all the others at that time. After all, it was the court temple of the emperor himself and performed the role of all the ceremonies that the ruling dynasty held in it.

Emperors no longer rule the country, and the temple and its monks still perform rituals and live in this ancient wooden monastery. For tourists, the entrance to the temple is allowed on any day in daylight hours days. They can see almost all the buildings and take part in prayers.

6 Terracotta Army

The Terracotta Army is China's most interesting historical landmark. She was found not too long ago. The legend of the existence of the army has always been heard by the entire population of China, but even scientists did not really believe in it. And only by a lucky chance in 1974, when the local villager they tried to dig a well, stumbled upon one of the cells in which the soldiers were imprisoned. These warriors, along with horses and carts, were created with one goal in mind: so that the emperor, who ruled China 2200 years ago, could feel secure in the afterlife.

The Terracotta Army is nothing more than an unusual tomb of Qin Shahuandi. Statues of warriors were not made in one place, but were brought here from all over China. Made of clay and subsequently fired, they have unique facial features and were decorated with paints already at the place of the future burial.

7. Gongwangfu

The next popular tourist destination in China is the Gongwangfu Park Complex. If you are interested in leisurely walks in the palace parks and are interested in the national traditions of the country, then this place is waiting for you at any convenient time. The last owner of the complex was the "Grand Duke Gong" Aisingero Isinyu. Being a wealthy aristocrat, he did not spare money for the construction of a garden that very harmoniously combines green trees and the smells of exotic flowers, unusual compositions of natural stone and the murmur of water in the purest ponds. In the evening, you can watch how traditional Chinese lanterns are lit, designed to attract wealth and prosperity to the house. You can also go into the palace itself, and make sure that its owner really lived in luxury and wealth. There is also a real working Chinese theater on the territory.

8. Beijing Zoo

The Beijing Zoo is a place where you can get acquainted with animals, birds and fish that live throughout China. The panda, the symbol of the entire Chinese people, attracts the most visitors. And not only foreign tourists, but also local animal lovers. But it is enough to take a few steps forward to see for yourself that the zoo is huge, and it presents a variety of animal species. Here in the cages you can see the Manchurian tiger, known for its wild character, the Mongolian wild horse, with the help of which the provinces of the country were conquered countless times. The zoo is home to a wide variety of birds: tropical, sea and land. For a European tourist, this is a real paradise.

9. Beijing Peace Park

The Peace Park located in Beijing will allow any tourist to make a high-speed trip to all the main attractions of the world. The fact is that small copies of the most interesting miniatures are collected in one place on the territory of the park. It will be especially interesting for those tourists who can see the religious building from their own country. Collected in the park Pyramids of Egypt from Giza, London's Big Ben, for lovers of Paris rises the Eiffel Tower. Those who have not yet had time to visit Rome will be able to see the Colosseum, and the Taj Mahal will give an idea of ​​vibrant India. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is tilted exactly as many degrees as it leans towards the ground in reality. Any tourist who visits this landmark of China will leave with a great mood and wonderful photos.

10. Taoist Park Heavenly Grottoes

If you, as a curious tourist, have been brought to Hainan Island, then the first thing you need to do is visit the Taoist Heavenly Grottoes Park. Even if you are a follower of a completely different religion, it will not hurt you to enjoy the most beautiful views of the man-made park. According to Taoist philosophy, the grottoes that cover almost the entire island are nothing more than the entrance to other world, and wandering through them, you can easily find yourself in a completely different place. But still, most tourists on the island are pilgrims who come from all over the world to receive enlightenment.

Also for lovers of mysteries in the park there is an interesting task - to drag the entrance to the Big Dangtyan Grotto. The entrance to the small one has long been known to everyone, and is marked with a special label. But the entrance to the large one was lost long ago, and has not been found to this day.

11 Hong Kong Ocean Park

If you get tired of endless trips to the sights of China, and want to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of celebration and entertainment for a while, be sure to check out the ocean park in Hong Kong. He rightfully takes the lead best park entertainment throughout the country, and boasts the most interesting programs. Divided into two parts, it harmoniously combines both of them. On the first tier there is a museum of extinct animals, which presents the skeletons of not only dinosaurs, but also sea monsters, as well as thematic theater, on this topic. At the second level, tourists will expect an incredible number of various attractions, interesting not only for adults, but also for children. In the park, you can easily lose track of time, and spend almost the whole day in it.

12. Zhangjiajie

Even if you are not a big fan of nature, this natural attraction in China will change your attitude to them radically. The fact is that Zhangjiajie National Park is on the list of the most visited and beautiful nature reserves in the world. The park looks decent at any time of the year, and it can be advised to visit it regardless of the circumstances. Even in winter, when the mountains and paths are covered with snow and ice, the park attracts the most desperate to capture the most interesting landscapes in the camera frame.

13. Jiuzhaigou

Another natural attraction, looking at which, right now you want to buy tickets to China and go see it with your own eyes. Don't the photos lie, because in fact, it doesn't happen so beautiful scenery on our planet. But they do happen, and this is the clearest proof. A very inaccessible mountainous region was opened to the whole world only in 1972, and ten years later, thanks to the efforts of the local authorities, the valley acquired the status of a national park. The name can be translated as a village of nine villages, 7 of which can be visited in person. The last two no longer exist. Since the inhabitants were forbidden to cultivate the land, they came up with another way of existence - to sell souvenirs of their own production to tourists.

14. Potala Palace

The Potala Palace, located on the mountain of the same name, is the highest mountain palace in all of China. Its walls rise at an altitude of 3767 meters above sea level. The first wooden building was erected here in the 7th century, since then the palace has constantly increased in size. But a century and a half later, lightning severely damaged the palace, and the war with its neighbors finished it off completely. They forgot about it for 900 years. And only in the 17th century it was decided to restore the palace, but from stone. It was on the order of the Dalai Lama that the palace received a second life, and after the completion of the work it served as one of the residences of future receivers. In 1994, the palace was included in the UNESCO heritage list and became accessible to the public, making it one of the most visited attractions in China.

15. National Museum of China

According to official statistics, the National Museum in Beijing is the most visited museum in the world. Within its walls, the history of the entire state has been collected for 5000 years. Here you can see more than half a million different artifacts. The museum is especially proud of the most valuable find that local archaeologists managed to find - the "Yuanmou Man", whose age is about one million years. Also in the rooms of the museum are a variety of coins that were in use in the country in different periods of time and many other interesting exhibits. If you move according to a specially designed excursion program, you can trace how China has developed from ancient times to the present day. This is a very interesting place to visit in China.