Bamboo bone china mug

Bamboo is a brush painting in traditional Chinese free style (Xie Yi) technique with ink on rice paper. Bamboo has been an important and meaningful subject for painting during many periods in Chinese history. The Chinese often compare bamboo to gentleman for its unique character of being neither cringing nor arrogant. Furthermore, bamboo painting is symbolic of self-effacing, integrity and safety. For the tall and straight bamboo and its joints, people also present bamboo painting to express good wishes of being promoted to a higher position or rank successively. The representative of symbolic Chinese flowers painting is "Four Gentlemen" and "Three Friends of Winter". Plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum were known as the Four Gentlemen. Their common traits are nobleness, modesty, and integrity. And as the Three Friends of Winter, pine, bamboo, and plum blossom are often associated with man of great virtue from another level Within feng shui , bamboo symbolizes grittiness, modesty, and successive promotion. The XieYi technique, also called "Free Style", is painted fresh from the hand and the design of the image is subject to few restrictions. Xie means to write and Yi the meaning. A famous Master of Chinese painting, said that Xieyi indicated the fact of drawing the spirit of the beings. Painting Xieyi uses many techniques of calligraphy which privilege the spontaneity of the line. Free style paintings are thus very quickly carried out. In the style of calligraphy, the image should not be painted, but written.