本书以全英文的形式，主要介绍了中国古代三位绘画大师——顾恺之、吴道子、阎立本的绘画艺术以及几类重要的绘画艺术——敦煌莫高窟、山水画、文人画和现代“中国画”。全书图文互动，史料丰富、翔实。主要适合爱好中国艺术文化的外国友人阅读，也适合爱好绘画艺术的中国人，或者想提升英语阅读能力的中国人阅读使用。

Traditional Chinese painting was fundamentally an abstract art form.Although there were no absolute abstract Chinese paintings in its original meaning, objects in a painting were not a direct copy of the nature world following the principle of perspective. It was rather a combination or harmony between the nature world and human emotion, a product of "heaven (nature) and human". The effect Chinese painters would like to illustrate in their paintings was not a visual effect of colors and patterns as their Western counterparts would like to achieve. The description of objects in their paintings was no means accurate and few concerned about such factors as colors, principle of perspective, anatomy, surface feel, and relative size. What they would like to achieve was a world in their mind of non materials. The nature world was not an object for them to make a true copy and it was rather elements for them to build their own world.

Preface

From Gu Kaizhi to Wu Daozi

 Tomb Chamber Paintings

 The Most Romantic Painting

 Communicatin of the Soul

 Spring Outing

 Emperors of Great Prosperity

 Another Figure Painting

 The Painting Saga

 Famous Paintings Record of Past Dynasties

Desert Treasures

 Buddhism Going East

 Dunhuang Mogao Caves

Lucid Mountains and Remote Streams

 Northenr Painters and Southen Painters

 Song Huizong and his period

 Along the River During the Qingming Festival(Qingming Shanghe Tu)

 Panorama Shanshui

 Su Shi andMi Fu

Scholar Paintings

 Zhao Mengfu and "Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty"

 Plum Blossom, Orchid, Bamboo and Stone

 "The Southern and Northern Sects"

 "Four Monks" and "Four Wangs"

 The End of Scholar Paintings and Famous Chinese Painters of Modern Times

Modern Chinese Paintings

 Painters Studying Abroad

 Revolutionary Realism

 "Modern" and "Post-Modern"

Appendix: Chronological Table of the Chinese Dynastie