ABSTRACT
As in the west, the arts in China have maintained a distinction between the high arts and the arts of craftsmanship. Traditionally, the supreme forms of artistic expression were calligraphy and painting; and within painting, by the tenth and eleventh centuries, landscape painting, literally “mountain and water” painting (shanshui hua), emerged as the most important subject. The other arts, such as sculpture, jade carving, ceramics, lacquerware, silk embroidery and weaving, cloisonne´, bamboo, ivory, and wood carving, though highly admired by connoisseurs, were not of the same stature as either calligraphy or painting. The appreciation of sculpture is an interesting and little explored phenomenon. Extant large-scale sculpture in stone, clay, or bronze is principally Buddhist, funerary, heraldic, or protective; and much early sculpture, primarily earthenware figurines, was made exclusively for interment within tombs. Generally speaking, sculpture, particularly Buddhist sculpture, whether large or small, was of less interest to the traditional connoisseur. With these considerations in mind, this article will concern itself primarily with the philosophy of painting.
