Chinese painting, the flower of Chinese culture, is distinguished by a spirit and an atmosphere all its own, entirely different from Western painting. It is as different from Western painting as Chinese poetry is different from Western poetry. That difference is hard to grasp and express. It has a certain tone and atmosphere, visible in Western painting, but essentially different and achieved by different means. It shows a certain economy of material marked by the many blank spaces, an idea of composition determined by its own harmony and marked by a certain "rhythmic vitality," and a boldness and freedom of the brush which impress the onlooker in an unforgettable manner.  - From My Country and My People by Lin Yutang

Figure painting (人物画）: It includes portraits, story painting and genre painting with figures as the main subject. Lines are the key point in the portrayal.

Landscape painting （山水画）: Chinese landscape paintings can be divided into blue-and-green landscape, gold-and-green landscape, light-purple-red landscape and water ink landscape according to the colors that used in painting. The one without outlines is called boneless landscape.

Flower and bird painting （花鸟画）: Flowers, rocks and birds are usually the main subject of this kind of paintings. Technically, there are elaborate style with colors and free style with ink.

Court painting （宫廷画）: It refers to the works done by those professional painters employed by the royal court, or imitations of their works by other painters. This kind of painting is usually very elaborate and meticulous, sumptuous and decorative.

Literati painting （文人画）: It generally refers to the paintings done by intellectuals and officials, who usually took painting as a kind of their spiritual sustenance, emphasizing more the scholarly execution of brush strokes and ink colors in expression than painting's likeness to real images.

Dan Qing (traditional Chinese painting): The Chinese water ink painting actually developed from early "contour lines with filled-in colors" painting. "Dan Qing" literally means the mineral colors of cinnabar and azurite that used in those early paintings. So, people today use this term for the traditional Chinese paintings.

Four masters of the Yuan dynasty: In Chinese history, Wang Gongwang, Wu Zhen, Ni Zhan and Wang Meng are the four great masters of landscape painting of the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). They initated the literati's water ink painting with their skillful brush strokes and exerted great influence on the late development of Chinese painting.

(Source: the Shanghai Museum)