Literati painting

Literati painting (wenrenhua, 文人畫) was developed by Chinese scholars trained in the classics, history, and philosophy, who also practiced calligraphy and painting. Where professional painters favoured careful finish, the scholars favoured brushwork that shows the individual hand and looks casual, mostly in ink. Chinese literati painting later came to be called Southern school painting. Landscape and plants such as bamboo and orchid became its main subjects, partly out of the scholar's wish to commune with nature. The brush ties it closely to calligraphy: in the Yuan dynasty, paintings of the plum, orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo, known as the Four Gentlemen, flourished because these plants stood for the noble character of the gentleman, and their brushwork follows the principle that calligraphy and painting share one source (shu hua ben lai tong, 書畫本來同). In theory, Chinese literati painted for their own pleasure and did not sell their work; in Japan, where the style is called bunjinga, many painters made it their livelihood.

Find a bamboo, a rock, or a tree and look at the line itself: does it thicken and thin, speed up and slow down, the way a written stroke does?

• Handscroll, hanging scroll, album 卷、軸、冊頁→Handscrolls and hanging scrolls each have their own way of being looked at.
• Ink painting 수묵→The Seoul card on ink painting covers the medium itself.