Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c11.s4.t1.2

v2.c11.s4.t1.2

Chinese painting has had a rich history of over 5,000 years. The earliest examples of painting in China in fact go back to Chinese neolithic pottery dating back to the 5th millennium BCE. Chinese painting has been closely related to other traditional Chinese forms of art and craft such as pottery, carving on jade, inscriptions on bronze and so on. Until about the 4th century CE, Chinese painting developed along its own lines, receiving outside influences only from its direct nomadic neighbours, and not from any distant cultural sphere.