Intangible Cultural Heritage - Copying and Reproduction Techniques of Ancient Paintings and Calligraphy

The art of copying and reproducing ancient calligraphy and painting, that is, reproducing ancient calligraphy and painting through sketching, inking, coloring, etc., is an important means of inheriting the art and techniques of ancient Chinese calligraphy and painting. The art of copying and reproducing calligraphy and painting can be traced back to the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Gu Kaizhi once discussed the "important methods of imitation" in detail in "On Painting". Since then, the copying activities and experiences of calligraphy and painting masters such as Xie He, Li Gonglin, and Mi Fu have also been recorded in ancient books and painting theories from the Southern Qi Dynasty to the Tang and Song Dynasties. Among the ancient calligraphy and paintings that exist in the world, copies are very common, such as the Shenlong version of "Lanting Preface" is a copy from the Tang Dynasty, and "The Picture of the Goddess of the Luo River" and "The Picture of Lady Guoguo's Spring Outing" are copies from the Song Dynasty. When the original works no longer exist in the world, the copies become the only treasures that show the style of the original works and are of great historical and artistic value. After the founding of New China, the Palace Museum established a cultural relic restoration factory and hired Jin Zhongyu, Feng Zhonglian, Chen Linzhai, Jin Yumin and others to form a calligraphy and painting copying group. In the 1980s, the Palace Museum trained the second batch of ancient calligraphy and painting copyists and reproducers. Since then, it has successively introduced outstanding graduates to learn the skills and become the third and fourth generation inheritors of the Palace Museum's ancient calligraphy and painting copying skills.