Shanshuihua
/ʂán.ʂwèɪ.xwâ/noun
A Chinese genre of landscape painting, especially depicting mountains, water, and atmospheric space.
Did you know?Traditional shanshuihua was not meant to copy one physical view exactly; artists used imagined landscapes to express harmony between human life and the forces of nature.
Etymological Timeline
Old Chinese, 1st millennium BCE
Old Chinese
山水畫
“The written components mean “mountain,” “water,” and “painting”; the exact modern genre name developed later.”
Han dynasty, 206 BCE–220 CE
Classical Chinese
山水
““Mountains and water,” a conventional pairing for natural scenery and the landscape.”
4th–5th Century
Chinese
山水畫
“Landscape imagery became an established subject in Chinese painting theory and practice.”
7th–10th Century
Middle Chinese
山水畫
“The genre flourished as an independent artistic tradition, especially during the Tang period.”
10th–13th Century
Song Chinese
山水畫
“Monumental landscape painting reached a major classical peak, presenting nature as an ordered, spiritually resonant cosmos.”
20th–21st Century
English/Modern Mandarin
shanshuihua
“The pinyin loanword used in English and other languages for traditional Chinese landscape painting.”