Chinese Rice Paper has a history of over 1,000 years. It is made from the bark of the wingceltis (Pteroceltis tartarinowii) mixed with rice straw. The making of xuan paper is a painstaking procedure involving 18 processes and nearly 100 operations and lasting over 300 days from the selection of materials to the finished product.

Flowers

The xuan zhi is praised as the king of all papers and is supposed to last a thousand years. This is because it is white as alabaster, soft and firm, resistant to ageing and worms. It absorbs but does not spread the ink from the brush, which goes over it with a feel neither too smooth nor too rough. For these qualities, the xuan paper is not only used for painting and calligraphy, it is increasingly used nowadays for diplomatic notes, important archives and other documents. In addition, it may also be used for blotting, filtering and moisture-proof purposes.

Compared with canvas for oil painting, Xuan paper is much thinner than canvas. The only flaw of Xuan paper is that it's easily torn like other papers. But after mounting to protect it, it becomes much firm.

Beautiful Lady

Chinese Painting is a traditional painting form of Chinese culture and figure painting is the oldest element in traditional Chinese painting, as everyday scenes were portrayed on the painted pottery which is the representative of the Neolithic Age. From Qin Dynasty to Three Kingdoms, figure painting was expressed in the forms of mural and lacquer painting with bold strokes and strong colors. After Jin Dynasty, especially during Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties, technique in figure painting were constantly developing, and figure painting with exact delineation and enriched colors became highlight. In Song Dynasty, with a wide diversity of style and subject, figure painting reached its maturity. Meanwhile, quite a few painters that specialize in genre painting came to the fore. It also was a period that figure painting paid more attention to the inner world of figures, showing outstanding effect of psychological depiction of Chinese figure painting.

Since Song Dynasty, painting of literati style progressed; along with portrait painting was prevalent among the people. The modern artists of figure painting, not only look back to the past masters' techniques and styles, but also widely soak up the essence of western painting. That brings the progress on composition, types, forms, color tone as well as techniques of expression to Chinese figure painting. Concurrently a batch of artists becomes masters of the century.

Drgonfly&Flowers - Chinese Painting

Size of ink brush is generally classified as either big (Da Kai), medium (Zhong Kai) or small (Xiao Kai); most calligraphy is written with a medium-sized brush as it is easy for beginers. The smallest brushes are normally used for writing very small pieces and for fashioning designs of seals. Medium brushes are the most widely used and accepted by public; wielded by a skilled artist, a medium brush can produce a variety of thicknesses of line, from those very thin to fairly thick. while finally the largest brushes are used only for very large pieces, such as calligraphy creations hung in the lobby of hotels.

For the texture of ink brush, it is usually produced to either soft (ruan hao), mixed (jian hao) or hard (ying hao), where certain textures are better in writing certain styles than others.

As a treasure in Chinese history, Traditional Chinese Ink Brush is well-known in the the world, and if you love Chinese culture or Chinese Fine Art, Ink Brush will be the one you will never  miss.

The Chinese ink brush is mostly made of hairs of goat, rabbit or the weasel tail, because hair from these animals is soft and in good elasticity. Soaked in ink, it has what is known as “capillarity”, which combined with the strong ink permeability of a special Chinese paper--Xuan Paper, making the strokes in a calligraphic work more vivid, varied and pretty.

Peacock&Bamboo&Peony - Chinese Painting

The use of the Chinese ink brush can be traced back to 6,000 years ago. Previously, the brush was made very simple. It seems that the picture, symbols and characters on ancient pottery, painted in red and black, were done with brush strokes.

The earliest brush intact today was found in a fifth century BC tomb of the State of Chu in 1958. A large number of inscriptions on bamboo strips were unearthed at the same time.

Since the fourth century in China, the skill of brush making saw great progress, and The Chinese ink brush became more suitable for calligraphers & Painter to bring their skills into full play. It had four features, summed up as follows: first, the tip of the brush could display the delicate changes of strokes. Second, its smooth end hair could make writing vigorous while it spread across the paper. Third, its cone shape made it easy to move in all directions. Fourth, it was durable, and kept is elasticity and softness longer. With such a brush, the calligrapher could easily write characters in different shapes, displaying different intensities and rhythms. By using different thicknesses of ink, the characters become three-dimensional.

And as the Three Friends of Winter, pine, bamboo, and plum blossom are often associated with man of great virtue from another level. For their own natural qualities, these five plants were given the corresponding symbolic meanings. In addition, because of their strong beauty in form, almost all artists dabbled at this theme and left many masterpieces.

Bamboo

There is another situation that some subject was given the fixed auspicious Fengshui meanings in flowers-and-birds painting history of development. For example, just like the peony represents high position, great wealth, and prosperity; pine strands for longevity and integrity; bamboo symbolizes grittiness, modesty, and successive promotion; red-crowned crane is symbolic of longevity, and so on. Their auspicious Fengshui meanings is one of important reasons that why flowers-and-birds painting is evergreen.

In the long Chinese history, everything is not single. The flower and bird paintings are all connected together with Chinese people's old faith and belief. Anyway, old things are always charming.

China's calligraphy is a unique ancient art and develops with the development of Chinese civilization. Indeed few peoples in this world own such a special art, besides China's calligraphy owns the long history and colorfulness.

As an artistic creation, calligraphy owns the profound and deep magic and mysteries and it spreads and expands its uniqueness and attraction and many people are indulged into its charm from generation to generation. Generally speaking, it experiences inscriptions on bones and bronzes, big seal and small seal in the early period. In Wei and Jin dynasties the basic structures and diversities of calligraphy roughly formed and finalized, that is, cursive hand, regular script, free script etc.

Calligraphy forms the meaningful, intentional and poetic structure on the undefined paper and leaves the impressive marks and remains by virtue of the agility, instability and levity of brush pen as well as the abundance and variety of water and Chinese ink. Therefore, calligraphy is an art of composing or structure. The brush of calligrapher is the extension of his fingers, and the celerity, slowness, motion, pause and transition are all mastered by calligrapher's subjectiveness and his release and abreaction of emotions and sentiments, so the calligraphy is an art of expression. The masterpieces of calligraphers stealthily reflect their life experiences, acquirement, self-cultivation and individuality and there are some sayings “the calligraphy is equal to calligrapher’s personality and cultivation”, “the calligraphy is the expression of calligrapher’s inner self”, and the calligraphy could be treated as gifts which are very elegant and decent in traditional way.