rt were prepared by their classical studies to
appreciate the strength or the delicacy of a line judged for itself, quite
independently of the forms represented. We must also bear in mind that
all of the Chinese painters were scholars, belonging to the class of the
literati.[14] Writers, poets, statesmen, soldiers, Buddhist or Taoist
priests, and philosophers have all furnished the greatest names in art.
Under such conditions the technical relationship between the line of the
painter and that of the calligraphist was closer, since painter and
calligraphist were frequently united in one and the same person. Thence
came the early tendency to use monochrome and to represent forms in the
abstract, rendering them more and more as mere themes, thus reducing the
subject to a few simple calligraphic strokes.

[14] The literati, or lettered class, were the aristocracy in what
was the most democratic of absolute monarchies. No matter how humble
his origin, anyone of the male sex was eligible to compete in the
examinations which were based upon literary knowledge and memory of
the classics. Proficiency in handwriting was a natural result. The
successful candidate might aspire to any post in the empire, as
official positions were bestowed through literary merit. During three
days and two nights at the time of examination the candidate was not
allowed to leave his tiny box-like cell, lacking even space to lie
down. Cases of death during the examinations were not infrequent. The
examination halls in Peking are now destroyed and those in Nanking
with 20,000 cells are crumbling away.--TRANSLATOR.

It is difficult for a European to follow the thought of the Chinese
painters in these daring simplifications. Sometimes they are carried to
such an extreme as to leave us with a feeling of perplexity. Often however
they give rise to mighty conceptions and paintings whose essential
character impresses us as a unique product of genius. Calligraphic
painting reached its highest level during the Sung and Yuean periods. It
was so closely allied to painting that the Emperor Hui Tsung, who ascended
the throne in 1100, founded the Imperial Academy of Calligraphy and
Painting in the first year of his reign. Hui Tsung was himself a painter.
The books credit him with especial mastery in the representation of birds
of prey, eagles, falcons and hawks, which seems to be sufficient reason
for deliberately attributing to him every p