Ancient China

This blog is dedicated to Ancient China (pre-Qing), Chinese history, literature, art and Han Chinese culture. Also supports the hanfu revival/movement.

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“Everything in here was clean and bright, warm and cosy. What a joy it is in life when you happen to have a clean, warm kitchen.”

-  Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

artist:  沐斤年

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“Your hair is winter fire,
January embers.
My heart burns there, too.” - Stephen King c: 十三真的起不来Ming

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‘’Love is the kind of thing that's already happening by the time you notice it. That's how it works, and no matter how old you get, that doesn't change. Except that you can break it up into two entirely distinct types -- love where there's an end in sight and love where there isn't.’’

- Banana Yoshimoto, Goodbye Tsugumi

artist: gua老师

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The steps to creating intricate watercolour work by -君翎- 

The final piece, which is titled 鹤灵 (The Crane), depicts an ethereal red-crowned crane perched gently on a woman’s shoulder, mirroring its owner’s deep thoughts. From the cloud-like wings to the hair that resembles a spiral galaxy, you can see step by step how the artist brings the dreamy aesthetic of the painting together.

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cr:  弥秋君 & moonsnow

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Tender reenactments of ancient love by 弥秋君 & moonsnow between lush trees and gentle rays of sunlight.

On her forehead, you can see a 花钿 (Chinese flower forehead decoration), which derived from the story of Princess Shouyang, favorite of Southern Dynasty Emperor Songwudi, falling asleep under a plum tree and a flower landing on her forehead. The court ladies admired it so much that they began imitating the flower on their foreheads with makeup, eager to replicate the Princess’ beauty and grace. This trend reached peak popularity in the Tang Dynasty.

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Hey! I'm half Chinese and have been following your blog for a while, just want to say the art you post is always so aesthetic and it's always so informative and it really helps me study my own heritage more. Do you have any more Chinese culture-inspired activities I can do at home like your last post about Chinese fan painting? Thank you in advance

Hello, dear!

It’s great to hear you’ve learned a lot about your own heritage from my blog! I started this blog back in 2012 to understand my own culture, and I’m glad to see it’s helping others years later. :-)

Aside from my Chinese fan tutorial which you can find here, there are plenty of other Chinese culture-related activities you can do at home. I’ve always been an avid baker, and I’ve discovered some neat ancient Chinese candy recipes lately - ever heard of Dragon Beard’s Candy? It’s the ancient Chinese equivalent of candyfloss or cotton candy, and it could easily be mistaken as high-quality Egyptian silk.

(source: image.wikimedia.org)

The recipe is straightforward enough, but the process can get quite messy so I advise you wear gloves when you make these! The recipe for these babies can be found here. All you need is water, sugar, cornstarch, a candy thermometer and a doughnut-shaped mould.

I also recently filmed and published a Chinese New Year-inspired macarons video tutorial (I am a macaron-baking enthusiast in my spare time), so keep your eyes out for when I post that on here. x

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Because the birdsong might be pretty, But it’s not for you they sing, And if you think my winter is too cold, You don’t deserve my spring.

- Erin Hanson

Spectacular scenes of the ancient world re-imagined and brought to life on paper with the greens and blues of delicate watercolour. The mountains are speckled with stardust and the lady on the boat prepares to begin her long journey into the depths of peace and serendipity. 

by: 山人辰露

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一世长安 (Chang’an of a Lifetime) by  风一伊 (Feng Yi Yi) depicts the Bell Tower of Xi’an in a mix of warm tones and gentle watercolour. A famous tourist site in the Shaanxi Province of China and standing at almost 40 metres high, it is the largest and best-preserved bell tower from ancient China. 

This particular painting holds sentiment for me as my family live in Xi’an, China, and the Bell Tower is their city’s pride and joy. The warm hues and gentle watercolours bring out the ethereal illuminations of this grand tower at night, and the artist captures the visuals of awe one would have visiting this grand beauty.

You can read more about the Xi’an Bell Tower here.

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With strokes so soft they make even the lily pads shy away in shame, one could mistake the silk birds as curious visitors. Nestling gently in the Crimson Quarter and eager to graze their floral counterparts, the artist captures the essence of fragile watercolour perfectly, skillfully spinning heavy silk into gentle hues.

artist: 南栀子-

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These are drawings done by an artist called 左小翎 , who specialises in drawing ancient Chinese style manhua.

 Among her list of impressive published works, one can enjoy the aesthetics of old meets new, tradition re-imagined with the soft strokes of a paintbrush. ❤ 

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A vision of a vivid escape, a glimpse of another world. The soft light catching, the speckles of dust dancing through the air in the hot summer sun. From the careful creeping rays of the morning’s slumber to the perfectly placed flowers as though Mother Nature was dabbling in interior design, we often overlook the smallest things.

For artist 鱼俞木, he makes sure to depict everyday things like doors and entrances as magical portals to another world, full of surprises and adventure.

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A lot of you may have noticed I’ve been posting a certain artist called ENOFNO recently and thus, here is a post dedicated to that artist :-).

ENOFO is an artist from Beijing, China. She specialises in a lot of watercolour illustrations and manhua art. She was born the 9th of May and studied art and design at  北京服装学院 (Beijing Institute of Clothing Technology). She produces a lot of ancient Chinese-inspired watercolour paintings (as shown above) depicting ancient Chinese women in various hanfu (汉服）(ranging from the early Han Dynasty style of the folded chest and wide sleeves to the chest-high skirt and sash from the Tang era), holding traditional Chinese instruments such as the pipa (琵琶),  dizi (笛子) and guzheng (古筝), as well as other things like oil-paper umbrellas (油紙傘), paper lanterns (灯笼), and rigid fans ( 扇 ). Her paintings of ancient China captures the distinctive culture, scenery and style through the medium of watercolours.

You can find more of her work here, here & here. :-)

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Hello to all my loves, hope you are all keeping safe. Stumbled across this tutorial by 小鱼的绘艺时光 (Little Fish’s Painting Time) showcasing the intricate but straight-forward steps in creating your own Chinese watercolour fan, perfect for those of you interested in arts and crafts during quarantine. 

An artistic staple in Chinese culture and often associated with ancient beauties, the iconic 团扇 (tuan shan), commonly known as the ‘court fan’ in English, remains one of the most beloved symbols of Chinese culture today. The surface of the fan is usually made of a very fine silk which gives it a smooth finish. Although the watercolour paint will appear on the paper underneath just fine, it will slightly bleed around the edges of the silk, giving it its hazy oriental finish. 

Here are some plain ones I found on eBay. According to the tutorial, all you need is: sketching paper, a few brushes, a blank silk fan and some watercolour - the artist calls for Wuzhu/Chinese watercolour, so I have linked some from Amazon here.

The first step to creating your own court fan is to gently sketch an outline of the design you’d like. Obviously, you can run free with your imagination and sketch whatever you’d like, but some classical Chinese motifs can include flowers, birds or Song Dynasty paintings. You want to gently etch the pattern on the paper to prevent any harsh pencil tones from smudging onto the silk. In this tutorial, I will be explaining how to recreate the artwork in the photo.

Second step is to begin colouring in these fans with the watercolour. For the flowers, colour them in gently with a light pink shade and outline the petals with a darker red. Then add the buds and stems.

Third step, use two different shades of green to bring the leaves to life. Paint on silk does not spread as smoothly as it does on paper, so wet your brush and ‘drag’ the paint around to give it a gradient look.

Continue adding more pencil sketches to the paper until you are finally content with your design and leave to dry. Once your fan dries, trace the veins of the leaves with a darker green to make them look more realistic. And there you have it, a straight forward tutorial in how to create your own silk court fan! I will link the original tutorial in Chinese to the artist here. 

first two photos by 喵小天meow

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Dancers by ENOFNO

Elegance and grace, tradition meets freshness with ENOFNO’s artworks of women re-imagined in ancient China. With the intricate linings of the hanfu to the careful shading of their gentle faces, one can almost hear their silk sleeves gliding through the air with their soft movements.

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A closer look of Hong’en Pavilion in Chongqing.

A 7-story high building that is a stunning example of pseudo-classical Chinese architecture, it stands at 468m tall and reigns as the most elevated viewing platform in downtown Chongqing, China. It’s home to thousands of beautiful flowers that bloom all-season round, including the Yulan magnolia and osmanthus fragrance. Although strikingly impressive by day, the park boasts one of the most spectular views by night. As the temple’s lights begin to turn on one by one from 6:30pm through to 7:00pm, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime show you can’t miss.

by 广月

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autumn and spring in watercolour.

Notice how their robes bleed into the artistic shading of nature behind them as though they are the goddess-like offerings of the gods, representing the different seasons in human form.

by 画措

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by 阿舍

Adorned with regal hairpieces and oriental silk robes, the artist’s take on the elegant silhouettes of four young women highlight the simple femininity and delicateness of the ancient Chinese beauty, even without having to cast your eyes upon their faces.