Guo hua (国画), literally “national painting,” is the umbrella term for traditional Chinese painting made with brush and ink or color pigments on paper or silk. It covers two main techniques, the fine-lined gongbi style and the freer ink wash style, and spans three classic subjects: figures, landscapes, and birds-and-flowers. The tradition dates back over a thousand years and remains a living practice among contemporary Chinese artists today.
Historic understanding of Chinese Guo Hua painting
Chinese painting is one of the oldest artistic traditions in the world. The materials used in Chinese Guo Hua painting are brush and ink on paper or silk. Once on paper, ink brushstrokes cannot be erased or corrected, so a painter must have a complete concept of the painting before the artwork begins.
Therefore it is no surprise that Chinese painting is closely related to Zen Buddhist and Daoist ideals of focus, concentration and harmony between man and nature. In Chinese paintings there is usually no attempt to capture the actual physical appearance of a subject, but rather its essential character.
Traditional painting involves essentially the same techniques as calligraphy and is done with a brush dipped in black ink or colored pigments; oils are not used. The finished work can be mounted on scrolls, such as hanging scrolls or handscrolls.
What means “Guo Hua Painting”
The dictionary definition of guohua is “traditional Chinese painting” (simplified Chinese: 国画; traditional Chinese: 國畫), though translated literally it means “national painting”, or sometimes an abbreviation for zhongguohua (“Chinese painting”). Less often you find the term guocuihua (“painting of national essence”) which has had a negative connotations since 1949 because of its origins in the National Essence Movement, a nativist cultural trend of the early republican period that became extremely conservative, both politically and socially.
In practice, a range of possible meanings for the term exists, which makes it difficult to translate accurately. Some painters use traditional materials to paint untraditional subjects or employ their materials in untraditional ways. For example Chinese paper with European pigments or, ink rubbings of paving stones, etc… Shortly you can say that works executed on Chinese paper or silk with predominantly Chinese pigments while showing traditional subjects can be called “Guo Hua painting” with no doubt.
Traditional painting techniques
There are two main techniques in Chinese painting:
- Gongbi (工筆), meaning “meticulous”, uses highly detailed brushstrokes that delimit details precisely. It is often strongly coloured and usually depicts figural or narrative subjects. It was often practised by artists that were working for the royal court.
- Ink and wash painting, in Chinese shuǐ-mò (水墨, “water and ink”) was often also called watercolour or brush painting. Interestingly in the Song dynasty this art was a kind of hobby of men that consider themselves as gentlemen.
The two styles sit at opposite ends of the same spectrum, precision against spontaneity. Our guide to Ink Wash Painting covers this distinction in more depth, including the related xieyi and gongbi traditions.
Apart from techniques there are mostly three main subjects of Chinese painting: human figures, landscapes, and birds and flowers. Figure painting became highly developed during the Tang Dynasty, and landscape painting reached its height during the Song Dynasty. Later after Chinese painters were exposed to Western art during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, new styles were evolving combining traditional Chinese painting with Western painting styles.
What makes a painting Guo Hua?
According to the writer, art historian and critic Xie He from the 5th century in China there are “Six principles of Chinese painting” to be considered which he wrote down in his book “The Record of the Classification of Old Painters” (古畫品錄).
- “Spirit Resonance”, or vitality, which refers to the flow of energy that encompasses theme, work, and artist. (today we would probably say does the artwork “connect” with you?)
- “Bone Method”, or the way of using the brush, refers not only to texture and brush stroke, but to the close link between handwriting and personality. (Does the work has an individual signature style?)
- “Correspondence to the Object”, or the depicting of form, which would include shape and line. (figurative aesthetics?)
- “Suitability to Type”, or the application of color, including layers, value, and tone. (harmony of color?)
- “Division and Planning”, or placing and arrangement, corresponding to composition, space, and depth. (appealing arrangement?)
- “Transmission by Copying”, or the copying of models, not from life only but also from the works of antiquity. (references to old masters?)
! Keep in mind that this was written circa 550 CE and refers to “old” and “ancient” practices, although I ad some remarks in parentheses.
A few works by “guo hua masters” from the late 19th
An finally some more modern interpretations
That same willingness to bend tradition runs through more recent generations too. Sun Xun builds entire animated worlds out of ink brushwork and woodcut printmaking, carrying the guo hua sensibility for suggestion over description into a completely different medium.
Guo Hua Painting: Frequently Asked Questions
“Guohua” (国画) literally translates as “national painting.” It refers to traditional Chinese painting made with brush and ink or pigments on paper or silk, as opposed to Western-style oil painting.
Gongbi is the meticulous, fine-lined, often colored technique traditionally used for court portraits and detailed subjects. Ink wash painting favors loose, expressive brushwork in black ink alone. Both fall under the guo hua umbrella. See our guide to Ink Wash Painting for more on this distinction.
Not quite. Ink wash painting is one of the two main techniques within guo hua, alongside the more colorful gongbi style. Guo hua is the broader category.
No. Guo hua specifically refers to work made with traditional Chinese materials, brush, ink, and pigment on paper or silk. Oil paintings, even by Chinese artists on Chinese subjects, fall outside the definition.
Qi Baishi and Xu Beihong are among the most celebrated 20th-century guo hua painters, alongside later figures like Wu Guanzhong and Li Keran, who blended the tradition with modern and Western influences.
Yes. Guo hua remains a living tradition in China’s art academies and among contemporary artists, some of whom, like Sun Xun, carry its ink-based sensibility into entirely new media.
Further Reading & Sources
- Zen on New World Encyclopedia
- Daoism on New World Encyclopedia
- Chinese calligraphy on Wikipedia
- Six principles of Chinese painting on Wikipedia
- Xie He (artist) on Wikipedia
- Qi Baishi on Wikipedia
- Xu Beihong on Wikipedia
Related Reading on ChinaArtlover
For more on ink-based technique and its contemporary reinterpretation, see our guide to Ink Wash Painting, our feature on Sun Xun, and our interview with Dou Jianyong.