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asianhistory:

[Top] Autumnal Colors On the Chiao and Hua Mountains. Zhao Mengfu.

— a descendant of the Song Dynasty royal family, Zhao Mengfu joined the court of the Yuan Dynasty Emperor. He rose to cabinet minister, and secretary of the Art Academy. Despite his stigma as a collaborator with the Yuan, he is one of the most well established Calligraphers in all of China.

There is a long inscription written by Zhao Mengfu explaining why he wrote the painting, and this is again an Archaic pursuit of portraying landscape “blue and green” style. He disregarded correct size for relationships and made things purposefully out of scale. This is not pursuant of beauty to be appreciated by the viewers, and denied the possibility of romantic landscapes. The landscape is austere, even bleak. The artist most prized the antiquity or ancient style displayed in his painting - rather than its modern techniques or maturity.  

[Bottom] Bamboo Groves in Mist and Rain. 1308. Guan Daosheng.

Zhao Mengfu’s wife, Guan Daosheng learned from her husband how to paint; many female painters learned from literati family or teachers.

 Indiegogo | Asianhistory | US History Minus White Guys

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beyondsilkroads:

The Hui people are one of the larger of China’s 56 officially recognized ethnic groups. China’s largest ethnic group are the Han people who make up 91% of the population and the Hui are the 3rd largest ethnic group making up .794% of the population. You might be thinking, “.8% isn’t that much,” but in reality that translates to a population upwards of 10.5 million people (as of about 2010). The Hui people also hold the distinction of being predominately Muslim, so if you ever try to research the spread of Islam in China it’s inevitable that you’ll stumble across the Hui because of the 20 million+ Muslims in China, the Hui make up a good chunk of it along with other ethnic groups descended from the Silk Road travelers.

The Hui people tend to be concentrated around the North and West of China, especially in the cities of Luoyang, Xi’An and Beijing.

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orientallyyours:

Historical reconstruction of the traditional clothing worn during the Han, Song, Tang, and Ming Dynasties. I haven’t been able to locate more information about this fabulous project or its creator(s)- does anyone know more?

Sources and more images: 浥蕖軒 新中式, Shijue, 醪盉

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archiemcphee:

Once a woodcarver, Chinese artist Wen Fuliang lives in Shaanxi province where he transforms chicken, goose, and duck eggshells into incredible (and incredibly fragile) works of art. 

Wen Fuliang has practiced the delicate art of eggshell carving for over ten years. The work is done “using a fine diamond bit on an electric rotary tool. The artist sketches a design on the shell, which has been carefully emptied of the yolk and egg white with a syringe. They must then gently but securely hold the egg shell in one hand, the rotary tool in the other and slowly carve away the design in an incredibly time-consuming and skillful process.”

[via Neatorama and Dailymail.co.uk]

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ohmyasian:

2716. Red String of Fate. “An East Asian belief originating from Chinese legend and is also used in Japanese legend. According to this myth, the gods tie an invisible red string around the fingers of those that are destined to meet each other in a certain situation or help each other in a certain way. According to Chinese legend, the deity in charge of “the red thread” is believed to be Yuè Xià Lǎo (月下老, often abbreviated to “Yuèlǎo” [月老]), the old lunar matchmaker god who is also in charge of marriages.” Wow, this is beautiful!

The two people connected by the red thread are destined lovers, regardless of time, place, or circumstances. This magical cord may stretch or tangle, but never break. This myth is similar to the Western concept of soulmates or a twin flame.

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thedorkages:

Printing.

Say it with me now: “while scholars debate where and when printing was actually invented…” It will no doubt shock you all to learn that people before the “Dark Ages” had actually figured out that when you put ink on one thing and stuck it on another thing, some of the ink stuck around. It took until Tang Dynasty China, however, for anyone to say, “So, since we’ve been putting flowers on silk for a couple hundred years — and stop me if I’m wrong here — do you think maybe we could write words in exactly the same way?”

“What, like, a woodcut?” the other person in this hypothetical conversation said.

“Well, I mean, I guess sort of like a woodcut,” the Tang Dynasty guy said. “Except maybe with fewer trees, and more vertical blocks of characters? So if we fuck up one character we don’t have to recarve the entire thing from a single plank?”

“I’m not really sure where you’re going with this,” the other guy said.

“No, no, it’s awesome,” said a third dude, named Bi Sheng, who had passed by on his way from the future. “I love this plan. Actually, you know what? You could cut out each individual character, and then use those however the heck you wanted! Hey — what if you did it out of clay?”

There was a resounding silence.

“No, I get it,” said Shen Kuo, arriving in his compass-based time machine. “That’s a great idea. I’m gonna write that down. What did you say your ancestry was?”

“Um,” said Bi Sheng. “I’m basically just some dude. This was pretty much the only thing that ever happened to me.”

“Okay, cool,” said Shen Kuo. “Boring Commoner Invents Movable Type. I’ll put it in next to the bit about time-travel. Eventually someone will rediscover it.”

“You know what would really work out,” said Choe Yun-ui. “If we used, you know. Metal. Which is less likely to randomly fall apart due to termites. Or the sun.”

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Look at their prettiness !