Chinese painting has a history of at least five thousand years. It possesses a national characteristic unique to China, a characteristic resulting from the presence of certain objective conditions that underlay the development of Chinese culture itself. The interactions between Chinese painting on the one hand and Chinese philosophy, literature, and other art forms (calligraphy, industrial arts, architecture, etc.) on the other have contributed to this distinct national characteristic. Though Chinese painting has much in common with Western painting from an aesthetic point of view, it has definitely made its own independent contributions.