Background Information
“Asia” is a term invented by the Greeks and Romans, and developed by Western geographers to indicate the land mass east of the Ural Mountains and Ural River, together with offshore islands such as Japan and Java.
Background Information
The earliest surviving representations of the Buddha date from hundreds of years after his death, so they are not portraits in the usual sense. Buddha images vary greatly from place to place and period to period, but they almost always show these conventional features . . .
Background Information
A date around 1050 BCE is generally accepted as the date of the defeat of the Shang dynasty (approx. 1500 to 1050 BCE) by Wen Wang and the establishment of the Zhou. The Zhou is divided into Western and Eastern stages, with 771 BCE a critical year, when the Zhou court moved east to Luoyang.
Background Information
Background Information
Much of China, a country slightly larger than the continental United States, is hilly or mountainous. To its east lies the Pacific Ocean; to its south thick jungles. Learn more.
Video
Learn about some of the most prolific archaeological sites in China, including the burial complex of the First Emperor and Sanxingdui.
Lesson
Writing was so valued by the Chinese that they called the most essential implements for the art The Four Treasures–the brush, ink stick, ink stone, and paper.
Background Information
Scholars often refer to the Tang (618–906) and Song (960–1279) dynasties as the “medieval” period of China. The civilizations of the Tang (618–906) and Song (960–1279) dynasties of China were among the most advanced civilizations in the world at the time. Discoveries in the realms of science, art, philosophy, and technology—combined with a curiosity about the world around them—provided the men and women of this period with a worldview and level of sophistication that in many ways were unrivaled until much later times, even in China itself.
Background Information
All Chinese characters are made up of a number of strokes. These strokes are painted in a prescribed order, depending on the script. Generally, strokes move from top to bottom and from left to right.
Background Information
In China, painting and writing developed hand in hand, sharing the same tools and techniques.
