This exhibit includes a set of studio implements that demonstrates the basic implements of Chinese painting and calligraphy--the brush with animal-hair tip and a mixture of ground ink and water. These tools in painting and writing also testify to the long history of Chinese culture.

The origins of Chinese characters used today can be traced back to inscriptions found on bronze vessels from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries BC. Although archaeological evidence has uncovered brushes dating back to the third and fourth centuries BC, oracle bones with obviously brushed writing, but not yet carved, demonstrate that the hair-tipped brush can be traced back with certainty to the thirteenth to eleventh century BC. This tool for writing has been in use for more than 3,000 years, and starting from the first century AD, the art of writing known as calligraphy developed to become one of the foundations of Chinese fine art. On display in this exhibit are five works from the Yüan dynasty onward representing the five major script types in Chinese calligraphy: seal, clerical, regular, running, and cursive. Each has a beauty and harmony all its own.

The brush is also an important tool in the art of painting. Scholars often used a brush and a mixture of ink and water to create paintings and express ideas. In fact, much of Chinese painting and calligraphy has been strongly influenced by Chinese philosophy, inheriting from the ancient concepts of the universe to come to an understanding of life and one's world. In the Sung and Ming dynasties, for example, philosophical trends emphasized an orientation towards understanding the principles of Nature and the mind. Thus, regardless of the subject, or whether a work is done in meticulously fine brushwork or sketchy applications of large brushstrokes, a Chinese painting frequently reflects this philosophical underpinning of Nature and its myriad transformations through the mind of the artist.

In this regard, another point needs to be mentioned here. The Chinese painter rarely seeks to create a photographically realistic rendering of a subject, but rather an understanding and form of observation that suggests an idea and memory. The artist uses fluid, animated lines and applications of the brush to create suitable arrangements on paper or silk for a "landscape of the mind," which is often composed of variations in compositional density, solid and void areas, soft and angular strokes, and wet and dry ink.

Starting from the T'ang and Sung period, the imperial court was an important patron of the arts in painting and calligraphy. This exhibition includes a display of a Southern Sung painting by Ma Yüan entitled "On a Mountain Path in Spring," and in the upper right corner is a poem personally calligraphed by the Southern Sung emperor Ning-tsung. This perfect combination of poetry, calligraphy, and painting reflects one of the highest ideals in Chinese fine art.

And because Chinese philosophy has so upheld the idea of Nature, simple and succinct ink paintings would become one of the mainstreams of Chinese painting. This does not mean that richly ornate and delicately rendered peonies, a symbol of wealth and prosperity, did not also appeal to artists and were rendered in the refined literati style of scholars.