傳統(tǒng)中國(guó)繪畫是一門獨(dú)特的藝術(shù),無(wú)論是風(fēng)格還是技巧都與世界其他藝術(shù)門類迥然不同。中國(guó)畫的一個(gè)顯著特點(diǎn)是強(qiáng)調(diào)繪畫的宣傳教育功能。早在兩千多年前,人物畫就被政府機(jī)構(gòu)廣泛用作宣傳工作。唐代的士大夫們甚至試圖把繪畫創(chuàng)作納入儒家的思想體系中。到了宋代,政府專門出版了官方畫譜,不但對(duì)人物畫的功能提出要求,對(duì)山水畫也是如此。
Traditional Chinese paintings constitute a unique school of fine art which is vastly different from any other fine art school in style and technique in the world. Stressing the educational function is a remarkable feature of Chinese paintings. Figure paintings were used for propaganda by government agencies as early as over 2 000 years ago. Scholar-officials of the Tang Dynasty even tried to bring paintings into the Confucian ideology. The court of the Song Dynasty published an official guide to paintings which set criteria not only for figure paintings but also for landscape paintings.