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The Joy of Fishes

Posted by China Online Museum on Tuesday, May 15, 2012, In : Painting 
       Playful fish in flora-filled water became a popular subject for Chinese painters when the cultivation of rare fish came into vogue in twelfth century. Because fish (魚, yu) is homophonous with the word for abundance (余, yu), it has become a common symbol for wealth and prosperity. Paintings of fish are often used to illustrate the auspicious expression, “May there be abundance year after year (年年有余).”

      Among the literati, the popularity of fish stems from the Daoist...
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Chinese Bronzes

Posted by China Online Museum on Thursday, February 2, 2012, In : Bronzes 
       Bronzes have been cast in China for about 3,700 years. Most bronzes of about 1500–300 BC, roughly the Bronze Age in China, may be described as ritual vessels intended for the worship of ancestors, who are often named in inscriptions on the bronzes. Many were specially cast to commemorate important events in the lives of their possessors. These ritual vessels of ancient China represent possibly the most remarkable achievement in the whole history of metalcraft before modern tim...
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The Three Friends of Winter

Posted by China Online Museum on Thursday, March 10, 2011, In : Painting 

       The three friends of winter refer to the pine (松), bamboo (竹), and plum (梅). The origin of this term is found as early as the Record of the Five-cloud Plum Cottage (五雲梅舍記) from The Clear Mountain Collection (霽山集) of literary writings by Lin Jingxi (林景熙, 1241-1310, a Song dynasty loyalist), “For his residence, earth was piled to form a hill and a hundred plum trees, which along with lofty pines and tall bamboo comprise the friends of winter, were planted (...
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Along the River During the Qingming Festival

Posted by China Online Museum on Wednesday, February 16, 2011, In : Painting 
       Along the River During the Qingming Festival (Up the River During Qingming, Qingming River View, 清明上河圖, pinyin: Qīngmíng Shànghé Tú) is a panoramic painting generally attributed to the Song Dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan (張擇端, 1085–1145). It captures the daily life of people from the Song period at the capital, Bianjing (汴京), today's Kaifeng (開封) in Henan (河南). The theme celebrates the festive spirit and prosperous street scene at the Qingming Festival, ...
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Chinese Fans

Posted by China Online Museum on Tuesday, February 8, 2011, In : Painting 
       A hand-held fan is a rigid or folding device used throughout the world since ancient times for cooling, air circulation, or ceremony and as a sartorial accessory. The Chinese character for "fan" (扇) is etymologically derived from a picture of feathers under a roof.

       The rigid fan has a handle or stick with a rigid leaf, or mount. The folding fan is composed of sticks (the outer two called guards) held together at the handle end by a rivet or pin. On the sticks is mounted ...
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Chinese Ceramics

Posted by China Online Museum on Wednesday, November 17, 2010, In : Ceramics 
       Chinese ceramic ware is an artform that has been developing since the dynastic periods. The first types of ceramics were made about ten to eleven thousand years ago. Chinese ceramics range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns (窑), to the sophisticated porcelain wares made for the imperial court.

       There are two primary categories of Chinese ceramics, low-temperature-fired pottery or táo (陶, about ...
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The Yan Style - Yan Zhenqing

Posted by China Online Museum on Sunday, October 11, 2009, In : Calligraphy 

       Yan Zhenqing (颜真卿, 709–785) was a leading Chinese calligrapher and a loyal governor of the Tang Dynasty. His artistic accomplishment in Chinese calligraphy parallels the greatest master calligraphers throughout the history. His “Yan style” of the Regular Script is the textbook-style that most calligraphy beginners imitate today. The “Yan style”, which brought Chinese calligraphy to a new realm, emphasizes on strength, boldness and grandness. Like most of the master call...


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The Sage of Calligraphy - Wang Xizhi

Posted by China Online Museum on Tuesday, July 28, 2009, In : Calligraphy 
       Wang Xizhi (王羲之, 303 - 361) was a Chinese calligrapher, traditionally referred to as the Sage of Calligraphy (書聖, 书圣).

       Born in Linyi (临沂), Shandong (山东) Province, he spent most of his life in the present-day Shaoxing (绍兴), Zhejiang (浙江). He learned the art of calligraphy from Wei Shuo, commonly addressed as Lady Wei (衛夫人). He excelled in every script but particularly in the semi-cursive script (行书). Unfortunately, none of his original works...


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The Song Dynasty Confucian Scholar - Zhu Xi

Posted by China Online Museum on Tuesday, June 23, 2009, In : Calligraphy 
Zhu Xi (朱熹, 1130 - 1200) was a Song Dynasty (960-1279) Confucian scholar who became the leading figure of the School of Principle and the most influential rationalist Neo-Confucian in China. His contribution to Chinese philosophy included his assigning special significance to the Four Books (四书) [the Analects of Confucius (论语), the Mencius (孟子), the Great Learning (大学), and the Doctrine of the Mean (中庸)], his emphasis on the investigation of things (格物), and the sy...
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Pan of the South and Li of the North

Posted by China Online Museum on Friday, June 12, 2009, In : Painting 
The phrase “Pan of the south and Li of the north (南潘北李)” was coined in recognition of two contemporary painters, Pan Tianshou (潘天寿) and Li Kuchan (李苦禅).

Pan Tianshou began his career teaching Chinese painting in 1923, when he moved to Shanghai to accept an assignment. In that same year, he met the 80-year-old master of the Shanghai School (海派), Wu Changshuo (吴昌硕), and the two painters became intimate friends. (Read more...)

Li Kuchan was born in Gaotang County ...
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The Crazy Zhang and the Drunk Su

Posted by China Online Museum on Sunday, May 31, 2009, In : Calligraphy 
“The crazy Zhang and the drunk Su (颠张醉素)” is used to refer to Zhang Xu (张旭) and Huai Su (怀素), the two most famous cursive-style calligraphers in Chinese history. Both of them lived during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Their works have been updated. Enjoy!
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The Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty

Posted by China Online Museum on Friday, May 22, 2009, In : Painting 
The Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty is a name used to collectively describe the four Chinese painters Huang Gongwang (黄公望), Wang Meng (王蒙), Ni Zan (倪瓒) and Wu Zhen (吴镇), who were active in the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368). They worked during the Yuan period and were revered during the Ming Dynasty and later periods as major exponents of the tradition of “literati painting” (文人画), which was concerned more with individual expression and learning than with outward repr...
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Welcome to China Online Museum!

Posted by China Online Museum on Wednesday, May 13, 2009,
Hello,

Thank you for visiting China Online Museum! If you haven't done so already, please subscribe to this blog by clicking the orange icon on the right panel, so that you'll receive the latest updates!

The main objective of China Online Museum is to showcase galleries of Chinese art and history. At the time, effort is devoted to expanding the galleries of Chinese calligraphy and painting.

In the future, we hope China Online Museum will become a place where people with various backgrounds c...
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