Elegant gathering brings artistic tradition to life

The yaji, or "elegant gathering", was a tradition among intellectuals, artists and people of higher social class in ancient China. They would gather to share their thoughts, demonstrate individual artistic or cultural attainments, and collaborate on the creation of prose, poems, calligraphy, and paintings.

The spirit of this tradition has been brought back to life at A Shared Vision of Beauty, an ongoing exhibition at the museum of the China National Academy of Painting.

On display are collaborations between 30 artists working in the flower-and-bird, mountain-and-water and landscape traditions. They illustrate the artists' years of technique and experience and the spontaneity of brushwork emphasized in Chinese ink art.