Mural and Polychrome Painting
Large-scale painting adorned temples, palaces, and tombs. Murals depicted religious narratives and auspicious imagery. Polychrome painting decorated architectural elements with standardized patterns.
Mural Traditions
Dunhuang murals represent the greatest surviving corpus of Buddhist painting. Yongle Palace and Fahai Temple preserve Daoist and Buddhist imagery. Temple murals served religious education and devotional functions. Rock painting preserves prehistoric and early historic imagery.
Architectural Polychrome
Hexia imperial patterns decorated palace buildings. Xuanzi patterns adorned official architecture. Suzhou style brought scholarly refinement to decorative painting. These standardized patterns conveyed hierarchy and function through color and design.