Ink and wash painting, one of the unique traditional art forms of China,
is representative of Chinese painting. It began around the time of the Tang
Dynasty, and then prospered in the Song and Yuan dynasties. With a history
of over one thousand years,it has experienced constant development, improve-
ment and perfection. The tools and materials used to create pink and wash
painting ,i.e. brushes, rice paper, and ink, are characteristic of Chinese culture
and closely related to the features of the paintings.For example, the mixing of
water and ink creates different shades of dryness, wetness,thickness. The inte-
gration and infiltration of water,ink,and rice paper enables such paintings to
convey rich images, and hence to achieve unique aesthetic effects. Ink and
wash painting holds a high status in the history of Chinese painting, and it is
even regarded as the criterion to evaluate the artistic level of Oriental paintings.