Six principles of Chinese painting

The Six principles of Chinese painting were established by Xie He in "Six points to consider when judging a painting" (繪畫六法, Pinyin:Huìhuà Liùfǎ) from the preface to his book "The Record of the Classification of Old Painters" (古畫品錄; Pinyin: Gǔhuà Pǐnlù) written circa 550 and refers to "old" and "ancient" practices. The six elements that define a painting are:

These have been translated over the years by a succession of sinologists with very varying translations. "The problem lies, of course, in the terseness of the original Chinese, where each principle is stated in but four characters.... Each period of Chinese painting has its own special way of interpreting the six principles...their application is fluid, varying according to period and artist".

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