China

Learn more about the various formats of Chinese painting.

Dancer, approx. 618–700. China Tang dynasty (618–906). Painted earthenware. The Avery Brundage Collection, B60P305.

Beginning in the Eastern Zhou dynasty (ca. 1071‒ 221 BCE) was the development of the so-called ‘hundred schools’ of philosophy, a creative flowering of genius that laid the foundations for all major schools of Chinese thought with the exception of Buddhism. At this time, philosophers began to travel around from court to court offering advice on everything from how to run the state, how to achieve victory in battle and how to achieve immortality.

In China, painting and writing developed hand in hand, sharing the same tools and techniques.

Learn about some of the most prolific archaeological sites in China, including the burial complex of the First Emperor and Sanxingdui.

Watch artist Kong Pak-yu demonstrate brushpainting at the Asian Art Museum.

Watch a Lunar New Year story about a beast named Nian.

A video tour of the Asian Art Museum’s collection galleries highlighting ceramics, jades, bronzes, paintings, and Buddhist arts representing some six thousand years of Chinese culture and tradition.

*Filmed in former museum location (prior to 2003) in Golden Gate Park. Presented by Brian Hogarth.