Page 416 - Chinese Porcelain Vol II, Galland

KEEN-LUNG.
426

CHINESE DRAWING.

In of Chinese it is well to remember
judging painting
that never use oil, while what they most admire is great
they
freedom in drawing. In China painting cannot be said to be
a profession any more than writing is in Europe. Every one
here is supposed to be able to write, so there every lady and
gentleman is expected to be proficient in the art of writing,
drawing, and verse-making ; the decoration of fans, scrolls,
etc., by these means being an accomplishment that all of good
position ought to possess. Of course some are more celebrated
for their drawings than others, and the designs we find on
were at times the skilled courtiers at
porcelain supplied by
from the of more than one
Peking, poems pens emperor being
also to be met with now and
again.
and hand in hand, the artist in China
Writing drawing go
much the same that the
occupying position writing-master
does here. What one can do, with more or less skill,
every
no one will pay long prices for, and scrolls by the best artists
of can be for a few
to-day purchased shillings.
There is an article on this Dr.
interesting subject by
Edkins, in the Shanghai Mercury of August 24, 1900. He
points out that the art of writing and painting were called
into existence the invention of the hair
by fine-pointed pencil,
and have been
contemporary for fifteen or sixteen centuries.
The is a
caligraphist painter who uses black and red, while
"
the artist a of colours. In the
employs greater variety
second after Christ
century paper came from Alexandria to
China, and the ingenious natives at once proceeded to make
it for themselves." Before that bamboo tablets and silk had
been used, the latter of course being still largely employed.
"
About A.D. 220 a called
general Mengkwa improved upon
the pencil by using fine hairs from the skin of the hare, but
perfection was only attained in the fourth century after Christ,"
when and both
caligraphy drawing improved greatly with the
use of the better " the hand when
implement, while, by resting
drawing on the wrist only and not on the little finger, great
freedom is secured both in and
ordinary writing painting."
"
About this time artists began to acquire fame for special
departments in painting. In the Sung dynasty there was a