While literati poetry developed fully during the Tang Dynasty, painting did not become central to literati until later. During the late Song, literati and academic painting become two distinct streams. Interestingly enough, however, although academic paintings were often far more skilled in technique, many felt and still feel that the“amateur”ink paintings of the literati are the highest form of art in China.
Notes：1）inheritance继承；2）distinct明显的
5.什么是“院画画师”？
What are academic painters?
Academic painters were highly skilled craftsmen. Many were educated to some degree. They used colors for realistic or highly conventional representations of people or things and they focused on spectacular, sometimes applying gold leaf, or other techniques. Their whole effort was aimed at achieving marvelous effects. The imperial court employed some men painters, and other academic painters made their way in the world by selling their paintings to wealthy patrons and customers. They were professionals, both in their virtuoso skill and in their dependence on permanent employment as painters and on selling their paintings to live.
After many centuries, academic painting came to focus on human and animal figures as the most developed forms of visual art in ancient China. However, landscape painting entered a period of sudden development during the Tang and early Song dynasties; and academic painting took a new and different turn during the latter part of the Song Dynasty. Professional painters then began increasingly to explore smaller and more intimate forms of painting, even when depicting broad landscapes. In reducing the scale of their paintings, they also developed innovative ways, using abbreviated lines and ink washes to represent landscape features which the Northern Song masters had rendered with intense detail. Although academic painters achieved simplicity with the use of their fertile imagination and great effort, the skills they employed were more accessible to literati, who were, after all, masters of calligraphic brushwork.
Notes：1）realistic现实的；2）conventional习惯的；3）re-presentation代表；4）virtuoso行家里手的；5）marvelous令人惊叹的；6）permanent永恒的；7）innovative创新的；8）accessible可（或易）接近的
6.书法对绘画有什么影响？
What is the influence of calligraphy on painting?
Chinese calligraphy was a separate art form in ancient China, and it exerted great influence on literati painting. Beginning with the period of the Six Dynasties (222—589), expressing oneself through distinctive written characters constituted an important characteristic of being a well-bred member of the elite. A number of men became famous for their fine calligraphy, and examples of their styles were preserved through carvings, which traced their brushstroke in stone. Over time, men of literary learning tried to master one or more of these classical styles and improve their unique individuality on them. This medium of handwriting became an important way of expressing one’s nature and reading the character of others.
Notes：1）exert发挥；2）individuality个性
7.元朝文人画有什么特点？
What are the features of the literati painting of the Yuan Dynasty?
In 1279, the Yuan Dynasty unified China under Mongol rule. Chinese literati ultimately learned how to live with Mongol rule, and many members of the educated class cooperated in continuing the management of government along the Confucian lines of the traditional imperial state. Nonetheless, many members of the elite did not want to involve themselves with the ruling Mongols and they sought ways to avoid service. A certain number of these men devoted themselves to painting and established a tradition of literati visual art. The Yuan literati applied their control of brushwork to the development of a new perspective on what art could achieve. The efforts at making things look realistic completely vanishes. Mountains, trees, and grass are depicted with extreme simplicity, not care for relative size; the sky is covered with writing. The interest has shifted from the landscape to the painter, and painting became an act of reinterpreting nature, which is simply the focus for the painters’ self-expression.
This has amounted to a fundamental shift, and it is central to literati painting. Actually Chinese landscape becomes art not devoted to Nature itself. It is devoted to man’s response to Nature. Now it clearly becomes a means for expressing the artist’s unique self and perspective, reflecting one’s moral self-cultivation and stance towards society.
In addition, the use of name stamp became established at this time. The addition of stamped name impressions, in itself an art, further enriched the artistic content of Chinese painting.
Notes：1）ultimately最后；2）perspective观点；3）reinterpret重新解释
8.你对明代绘画知道多少？
What is known about the painting of the Ming Dynasty?
During the Ming Dynasty, literati paintings were prized above academic paintings by most educated people who understood the goal of revealing the inner character of the painter and depicting of nature, man, or various objects in such way as to communicating a sense of virtue, strength of purpose, or sensitivity towards the conditions of human life.
