Thirdly, Jiang Zhou points out in an essay, "the combination of Chinese and Western art nearly courted the destruction of traditional Chinese painting in the twentieth century." Since it has brought forth such grave consequences, it is an absolute necessity to clarify and illustrate what this combination exactly refers to. If we don't restrict ourselves to specific words, we can easily understand what the author means and worries about. One is the blind belief of sketch as the basis of all modeling. This was stressed in previous teaching of traditional Chinese painting. The other is some practice of improving traditional Chinese painting on the basis of Western painting. These two nihilistic points of view were wiped out around 1957. Then followed the equally problematic dual-system teaching experiment. So isn't it somewhat exaggerating to say, as the author says, that this is what the combination means, and further to say that it has influenced the entire century's traditional Chinese painting and almost put it to destruction?

Traditional Chinese painting can be roughly divided into figure, landscape and birds-and-flowers painting. The baseline of the last two kinds does not seem open to questions. Figure painting, however, has been severely criticized. The reason is that since the beginning of the 20th century, traditional techniques have been found difficult and insufficient to represent modern life. Chinese artists are attentively engaged in solving this problem. At any rate it is an undeniable truth that the incorporation of "what is adoptable from the west" has played a prominent role in adapting figure painting into a modern style. Here sketch is not the only technique that helps.

Traditional painting changes all the time and it abounds in styles, manners and techniques. It was from a new and comprehensive perspective that Chinese artists of the 20th century surveyed, understood and inherited traditions. They also derived good points from outside their own country, for in such an open social atmosphere it was impossible to reject the outside influence. In this period we have such eminent artists as Xu Beihong, Jiang Zhaohe (蒋兆和), Ye Qianyu (叶浅予), Huang Zhou (黄胄) and less famous ones like Zhou Sicong (周思聪) and Lu Chen (卢沉). A touch of reconciliation of Chinese and Western painting can be felt in their artistic way of thinking and techniques. But we are not justified to replace reconciliation with combination. It is the same case even if we speak of historical painting. Take 'Huang Cao Rebel Army Marched into Chang'an' (《黄巢起义军进长安》) as an example. It was painted by Wang Weiyang (王维阳) in 1959 for the Chinese History Museum. The composition of this painting is borrowed from one of the Dunhuang frescoes, 'Zhang Yichao Led the Army to the Battlefield' (《张议潮统军出征图》). However, its psychological portrayal and insight into the relationship of characters are much influenced by Surikov (Суриков В. И.)'s 'The Morning of an Imperial Guard's Execution' (Утро стрелецкой казни). The traditional line drawing technique and Western sketch are harmoniously combined. As a result, the characters are portrayed in superb texture and in accordance with locomotive laws, without losing their naturalness and liveliness. Besides, its color design is also affected by Western style. Although it portrays an historical event, we can sense a strong modern flavor. The interweaving of Chinese and Western styles and techniques is quite natural.

Finally, the author says sentimentally, "In spite of the great achievements traditional Chinese painting has made in the 20th century, its baseline has been blurred and its definition has become unclear." But I think it is an inevitable tendency. The expression "the comprehensive traditional Chinese painting" serves as a proof of such a tendency. I still believe that it is far better to reasonably blur its baseline and make it more comprehensive than confine it to a narrow definition.

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