Chinese painting is one of the oldest artistic traditions in the world.     1     (tradition) painting involves the same techniques and is done with a brush (刷子) dipped in black ink, and oils are not used. The most popular material on     2     paintings are made was silk. However, after the     3     (invent) of paper, silk was replaced gradually by the new and cheaper material.

The six principles of Chinese painting     4     (establish) by Xie He, a writer, art historian and critic in the fifth century. In his book The Record of the Classification of Old Painters, Xie He put forward six points to consider when     5     (judge) a painting.

    6     is regarded that landscape painting was the highest form of Chinese painting, and     7     (general) still is. In the north, some artists painted pictures of towering mountains, using strong black lines     8     (suggest) rough stone, while in the south, some artists painted the rolling hills and rivers in peaceful scenes     9     softer. rubbed brushwork (画法). These two kinds of scenes and techniques became the classical     10     (style) of Chinese landscape painting.

‘Picturesque’ is the word we reach for     1     (describe) the attraction of a charming view or natural scene. In fact, it has a rather evil past. Coming from the Italian word ‘pittoresco’, ‘picturesque’ was seized upon at the end of the 18th Century by upper class British artists who drew     2     (inspire) from the bright colored Italian landscape paintings they’d encountered, while     3     (visit) the great hubs of European culture on     4     became known as The Grand Tour.

But the ‘picturesque’ paintings that artists such as William Gilpin began to create     5     (differ) strikingly from the wide-open and liberating views you find in paintings by such masters of ‘pittoresco’ style as Claude Lorrain or Salvator Rosa.     6     winding paths and curving rivers that lead one’s eye from the shadowy foreground in a Claude painting,     7     the soul-soaring horizons in his sun-soaked distance, are suddenly shut down — the liberating journey of the eye is blocked. Some cultural critics have suggested that the     8     (advocate) of the British picturesque may have been motivated by fear of     9     (politics) revolution spreading from France to England, and so prevented its power in order to keep the ambitions of observers of their work in check. No wonder the US transcendentalist (超验主义者) Ralph Waldo Emerson, who believed in the rise of spirit, once stated     10     (firm): “Pictures must not be too picturesque”.

As a sacred thing     1     (love) by Chinese people, the dragon is inclusive in all kinds of traditional Chinese art, like sculpture, painting and embroidery (刺绣). With various meanings, the dragon appears in buildings, porcelains and decorations, and everything you can imagine may     2     (decorate) with dragon elements. All those art works reflect Chinese aesthetics (美学), and Chinese people’s     3     (wise) and love for the dragon.

The dragon is a popular object of drawings and there     4     (be) many famous paintings about the dragon. Ink wash painting is     5     unique style of Chinese painting, especially in ancient China. Therefore, famous dragon paintings which are     6     great value are that style, and the painted dragon is called the ink dragon.

The Nine Dragons Painting is a scroll (画卷) of a dimension of 46.3 cm×1496.4 cm     7     it shows nine dragons with different facial and body looks, soaring in waters and mists. The painting is marked with dragons features and perfectly demonstrates how     8     (power) dragons are. The scroll painting,     9     creator is Chen Rong, is now collected in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Chen Rong is a painter in the thirteenth century and good at     10     (paint) various dragons. Many other painters, such as Cao Buxing and Zhang Zengyao, are also famous for their dragon paintings.

Undercurrent, a twenty-foot-tall stainless-steel sculpture by Beijing-based artist Zheng Lu, is    1    display until August 2024 in the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza,     2     is just outside the United Nations complex (建筑群) in New York. The sculpture,     3     (weigh) nearly 2.5 tons, was more than two years in the making. Zheng is the first Chinese artist     4     (have) his work exhibited there.

The public art project, initiated by Sundaram Tagore, is supported by the World Council of Peoples for the United Nations, a nonprofit organization     5     (found) in Europe after World War II, which is dedicated to facilitating international partnerships that promote awareness and implementation of UN goals.

The sculpture is created     6     (specific) for the site and relates to the United Nations’ recent action initiatives on clean water and climate change. Part of the     7     (artist) acclaimed Water in Dripping series, Undercurrent emphasizes the     8     (significant) of water. As a student of Chinese philosophy, Zheng views water as symbolic of change, the passage of time     9     self-reflection.

Zheng Lu’s sculptures     10     (exhibit) around the world in the past few years, including, most recently, in Summoning Memories: Art Beyond Chinese Traditions at the Asia Society Texas.