What are literati painters？
2 min readLiterati painters were amateurs.They painted as a means of self-expression，much as the same way they wrote poetry；both forms were the inheritance of the Neo-Daoist era of the Six Dynasties.Many fewer literati were accomplished painters that poets；but there were always many literati who painted on the side，while serving as scholar-officials.
Literati painting was conceived as mode through which the Confucian junzi（noble person）expressed his ethical personality.It manifests concern little for technical showiness.Literati painters specialize in plain ink paintings，sometimes with minimal color.They emphasize the idea that the style with which a painter controls his brush conveys the inner style of his character.Brushstroke is seen asan expression of the spirit more than matters of composition or skill in realistic depiction.
While literati poetry developed fully during the Tang Dynasty，painting did not become central to literati until later.During the late Song，literati and academic painting become two distinct streams.Interestingly enough，however，although academic paintings were often far more skilled in technique，many felt and still feel that the“amateur”ink paintings of the literati are the highest form of art in China.
What are academic painters？
Academic painters were highly skilled craftsmen.Many were educated to some degree.They used colors for realistic or highly conventional representations of people or things and they focused on spectacular，sometimes applying gold leaf，o1other techniques.Their whole effort was aimed at achieving marvelous effects.Theimperial court employed some men painters，and other academic painters made their way in the world by selling their paintings to wealthy patrons and customers.They were professionals，both in their virtuoso skill and in their dependence on permanent employment as painters and on selling their paintings to live.After many centuries，academic painting came to focus on human and animal figures as the most developed forms of visual art in ancient China.However，landscape painting entered a period of sudden development during the Tang and early Song dynasties；and academic painting took a new and different turn during the latter part of the Song Dynasty.Professional painters then began increasingly to explore smaller and more intimate forms of painting，even when depicting broad landscapes.In reducing the scale of their paintings，they also developed innovative ways，using abbreviated lines and ink washes to represent landscape features which the Northern Song masters had rendered with intense detail.Although academic painters achieved simplicity with the use of their fertile imagination and great effort，the skills they employed were more accessible to literati，who were，after all，masters of calligraphic brushwork.
