Meaning and Evolution of the Image of Trees in Chinese Landscape Paintings

There is a research method called iconography in Western art history.Do the images in Chinese landscape paintings have the similar underlying meaning yet? China has a long tradition to represent a thing as a person or depict a human as an object.In the remaining theory of painting from Song Dynasty,it is found that the ways of image match and symbolism were used.However,it is an obvious fact that Chinese painting and Western painting belong to different culture type.Though this paper uses the Western method of iconography and formal analysis,Chinese culture is deeply rooted in the method for exploration of the causes.This paper reveals the image meaning and evolution route of the image of trees in Chinese landscape paintings.