Art Chinese

Art Chinese
Why were many renderings of Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, look so fat in some Chinese Art?

I am a buddhist and was an art student. There are a few statues and pictures of what is called the laughing Buddha in Chinese art, was that supposed to be the real Siddhartha - the historical Buddha or another Buddha, since we all have the potential to be a Buddha through our own Buddha Nature?

The historical Buddha, Siddharta Gautama, is never depicted as a fat man, but as a perfectly proportioned man with the 112 so called "major and minor marks of a buddha": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_characteristics_of_the_Buddha

The popular fat so called "laughing Buddha" in China is in fact a Chinese folkloristic deity called Budai, sometimes identified with the "future buddha", Maitreya, although normally all buddhas are depicted with the perfectly proportioned body and the physical marks of a buddha mentioned above.

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Pottery Art in China With a Long History I --- Preface

"Tao (pottery)", according to the figure described in oracle bone inscriptions, it implies a person who was squatted and sit on the ground, with a tool just like a wood stick modeling clay. Through sintering adobes will form into ceramics, which we called pottery today.

Archaeological discoveries have proved that as early as in the Neolithic Age (about 8000-2000 BC) the Chinese people had invented pottery. The agricultural production emerged in later primitive society had bought a relatively more fixed life to the ancestors of the Chinese people, which also produced the demand for pottery objectively. So, in order to improve the quality of life and make their lives more convenient, gradually Chinese people invented pottery through the burning of clay.

The word first appeared on pottery, it was found on a ceramic flake left by Shang Dynasty, and which is the only piece so far, while there are many pieces of ceramic flakes without words on. With a long history of pottery, China has left a great number of ceramic heritages, among these historic treasures, the oldest pottery was been produced out in BC 9,000 (with carbon isotope C14 detection).

The original pottery were been burned into in open-air, and these primal pottery are rough and fragile. About BC 8000, people started to put the ceramic model into pottery kiln, and with the method of controlled burning to improve the pottery, quality, through this method the pottery produced became not only more strong but also more beautiful, and turned into One Kind of artworks.

Before the Shang Dynasty, the main colors of the pottery are only three: red, gray and black. Later based on the development of enamel coating technology, the color of pottery became more abundant and bright. In the Tang Dynasty, faience ware, also called painted pottery or colored pottery, one kind of Tang handicrafts was created out, among which, the Tang tri-colored pottery is the most well-known typical work.

On the basis of the high-level ceramic technology accumulated long-term, China produced porcelain ware in the world, which has become an important medium of the exchanges between the East and West cultures and economy, and people in the West just called porcelain as CHINA namely the country of China, it can be also said to describe China with Chinese porcelain (china). In Western languages the word “china”, whose meaning also includes pottery. In the history of the development of Chinese ceramics, the pottery was appeared before porcelain, and the porcelain was took birth from pottery.

Art of China boasts a history of lasting for over 5000 years, which makes it one of the oldest arts in the world. Chinese Art embraces a huge diversity of forms from the various ruling dynasties of China. Several philosophers, teachers, religious figures, and even political leaders shaped the versatile Art of China, which includes Fine Arts, folk arts, and performance arts. Ming and Ch'ing dynasties were the last imperialistic dynasties of China.

Ming Art of China

The Ming Dynasty, one of the last outstanding dynasties, ruled China from 1368 to 1644. It was also the last dynasty to be dominated by Han Chinese. All art forms boomed during this period, including painting, poetry, music, literature, & dramatic theater, as Ming leaders restored the sense of cultural identity and respect for conventional artifacts and artisanship.

Carved designs on objects decoratively covered with lacquer or the intricate design on porcelain wares were generally found in the homes of affluent. The Ming artifacts were definitely more creative than those of the previous dynasties were. Artwork in the Ming dynasty also included embroidered silks and wares in jade, ivory, and cloisonné. The techniques of Color Painting and color printing were honed during this period. Some of the famous visual artists of Ming Dynasty were Ni Zan, Shen Zhou, Tang Yin, Wen Zhengming, Qiu Ying, Dong Qichang, and many others. Ming dynasty is also well known for the construction of "Forbidden City," which is a majestic palace of impressive attributes and luxuriousness.

Ch'ing Art of China

Ch'ing Dynasty also known as Qing Dynasty or Manchu Dynasty was the last ruling dynasty of China, governing from 1644 to 1912. The Ch'ing Art of China is the assortment of all the artistic styles that had developed in the past 3000 years of Chinese civilization. The painters, such as Shih-Tao and Chu Ta, conveyed themselves more directly through liberal brush strokes, carried out in dry or wet-brush techniques. The demand for Chinese blue-and-white porcelain, lacquer, and jade surged in Europe during this period. The design of the porcelain wares were made simple and the colors became more graphical, a marked departure from blue-green colors used in Ming dynasty. The objects of daily use like furniture were made from materials like wood or bamboo. With the opening up of trade relations with Europeans, the Ch'ing Art was heavily influenced by their western counterparts. The buildings and palaces were constructed according to Western style, for example the "Yuanmingyuan Palace" that was later destroyed in the 19th century.