we recognize certain distinguishing characteristics (from large matters, such as choice of subject and composition, to small matters, such as kinds of brush strokes) that mark an artist, or a period or a culture and these constitute the style. almost anyone can distinguish between a landscape painted by a traditional chinese artist and one painted by ven gogh. but it takes considerable familiarity with van gogh to be able to say of a work, "probably 1888 or maybe 1889," just as it take considerable familiarity with the styles of chinese painters to be able to say, "this is a chinese painting of the seventeenth century, in fact the late seventeenth century. it belongs to the nanking school and is a work by kung hsien-not by a follower, and certainly not a copy, but the genuine article.