báimiáo 白描
Plain Line Drawing
中国画的表现手法之一。用墨线勾勒描摹物象的轮廓，不设颜色。白描多用于画人物、花卉，着墨不多，气韵生动。白描源于古代的“白画”。一
般运用同一墨色，通过线条的长短、粗细、轻重、转折等表现物象的质感和动势。白描流行于晋唐时期，宋代以后自成一格。晋代顾恺之、北宋李公
麟、元代赵孟頫等擅长铁线描，唐代吴道子、南宋马和之等擅长兰叶描。白描也是文学创作中非常重要的表现手法，主要指用朴素简练的笔墨，不加烘托渲染，描绘出鲜明生动的形象。古典小说《水浒传》《三国演义》等多有高超的白描手法。
Plain line drawing is one of the traditional Chinese styles of artistic presentation.It features the contours of images sketched in black ink lines. This style of painting is mostly used in painting human figures and flowers. Although not much ink is applied, this technique can achieve a very lively effect. Plain line drawing originated from the plain drawing of earlier times； through variations in lines’ length, thickness, pressure, and changes in trajectory, the artist can portray the texture and motion of images. Plain line drawing was prevalent from the Jin Dynasty through the Tang Dynasty. During the Song Dynasty, it formed a distinctive style of its own. Gu Kaizhi of the Jin Dynasty, Li Gonglin of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Zhao Mengfu of the Yuan Dynasty specialized in painting lines of perfectly even width like iron wire, while Wu Daozi of the Tang Dynasty and Ma Hezhi of the Southern Song Dynasty were renowned for their skill in drawing thick, wavy lines resembling orchid leaves. Plain drawing
is also a very important style of expression in narrative literature. In this context it refers to a simple and concise style of writing, without embellishment, so as to produce fresh, lively images. In classic novels such as Outlaws of the Marsh or Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one finds abundant instances of a plain drawing style of writing.
