Mysterious and August Paintings in Pre-Qin Period
4 min readPre-Qin period refers to the Xia，Shang，Western Zhou dynasties，the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period before Qin dynasty.Paintings appeared at that time paid attention to practicability and were mainly used as decorative pattern on architectural fresco，vehicle coat and flag，bronze ware，lacquer ware and jade ware.Ornamental patterns were the major characteristic.It was not until the end of the Warring States period that an absolute kind of painting-silk painting-came into being.
1.Mysterious，August，Beautiful and Elegant
Decorative Design on Bronze Ware Bronze ware was made of a fusion metal of tin，cuprum and lead.It was an artifactitious ware represented the highest artistic achievement and the time feature of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.Bronze ware appeared before 1，900 BC，afterwhich bronze ceremonial vessels Jue（wine vessel）and Jia（vessel for heating wine）came into being.From late Shang dynasty to Western Zhou，the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period more than two thousand years ago，bronze waredeveloped in a rapid way.The art and techniques of bronze ware producing had been greatly improved.Many famous ware and vessels appeared at this period.
The abundant and delicate decorative designs around bronze wares demonstrate thefeature of painting and are significant data for research of the painting art inthat period.From the middle and later period of Shang to Western Zhou dynasties，ogre-mask motif（or animal-mask motif），designs of kui-dragon，bird，elephant，tiger，cicada and designs of turtle，snake and fish，designs of clouds and thunder and designs in shape of nail and whorl were all very popular.The orge-mask motif was the image of a mysterious and august animal image which was abstracted from the image of ox，tiger and sheep.In the Spring&Autumn period and the Warring States period，the designs become less mysterious and less august.There were more designsabout the real life scenes.And ornamental design also included design of tortuous snake，tortuous hornless dragon，waves，shells and leaves.Two-side or four-side connected design appeared.
Among all bronze ware decorative designs，the one best representing painting characteristics was the design around the pots with picture of conviviality，fishing，hunting and warring，which was from the Warring States period.There were three pots together.One is stored in the Imperial Palace Museum in Beijing，and other two were unearthed from Baihuatan in Sichuan province’s Chengdu and GaowangTemple in，Shaanxi province’s Fengxiang.The one from Baihuatan in Chengdu has four pictures onside，including:first，nobles practicing toxophily，servants doing cooking，men and women collecting mulberry leaves；second，nobles enjoying feast with music and dancing and nobles hunting bird with bows and arrows；third，land and water warring scene；fourth，nobles going hunting.Figures in the picture are in silhouette.The nicety of form，vivid action and gesture，neat image assembling and dainty composition of picture all demonstrated the improvement of painting art at that time.
2. Silk Painting in the Warring States Period
The representative of Pre-Qin period painting is silk painting in the Warring States period more than two thousand years ago. Silk refers to all silky fabric and silk painting means painting on the fabric silk. Silk painting in the Warring States period adopted the real form of painting. Up to now only two of them were found. One was unearthed in 1949 from an ancient Chu tomb on Chen’s Hill in Hunan province’s Changsha. The painting was 3lcm high and 22.5 cm long, on which appeared a noble lady in long dress standing facing the left, with her palms together. Above her headwas a large phoenix flying to the left with stretched neck, open beak, soaring claws and warped wings.
On the left part of the painting, the lady was facing a tortuously ascending dragon. The other was unearthed in 1972 from a Chu Tomb in Zidanku. The painting was37.5 cm high and 28cm long. Depicted was a noble man side standing facing the left.
In high hat and long gown, with sword tied to his waist and halter in his hand, hewas harnessing a boat like dragon, sailing forward. Above was baldachin and flyingfringes and below was swimming carp. On the tail of the dragon,a crane was facing the sky and stretching its neck. The two paintings are both portraiture and depicting the dragon and phoenix flying their owners to the sky. The theme of the two paintings seemed to be”leading the soul to heaven”The two silk paintings mainly used lines to do the sketch. The figures are depicted in perfect proportion, accurate shape and vivid images. The fine waist of noble ladies reflects King of Chu State in favor of thin waist beauties, which was a fashion of the time. Other images of dragon, phoenix, crane and fish are all in good shape and with different features, which demonstrated the artist’s high skills in sketching the form of image. Lines are applied in the painting in a proficient and precise way. The lines are very thin yet with strength, long with vigor, stretching and full of expressive force. Besides the use of lines, tincture and pigmentation are applied in part of silk painting, which helped understanding the theme of painting. Silk paintings in the Warring State period are of great importance in Chinese painting history.
The use of lines in painting became a basic skill in shaping images in Chinese painting since then. The use of tincture also gained its application and abundance in later paintings. Silk painting of the Warring States period is the actual origin of Chinese painting.
