Chinese traditional painting is a picture painted with a Chinese brush using black ink or colored pigments on silk or on a piece of Xuan paper.
       Traditional Chinese painting has two categories by the brushwork styles: Gong Bi (meticulous painting) and Xie Yi (freehand painting). Gong Bi painting is painted by fine brushwork. It is realistic painting which pay very close attention to the details. Xie Yi is to depict the painting with a simple a freehand brushwork. It can directly express the artist's feeling by simple brief and simple brushstrokes to reflect the spirit and charm of the scene. For example, the following two paintings are all for lotus flower. The one on the left is the Gong Bi painting, and the right is the Xie Yi painting.


    Traditional Chinese painting can also be categorized into three kinds by its content: landscape, flower and bird, and figure.