The court continued to patronize a royal painting academy, but the majority of its output lacked any significant qualities beyond the ability to imitate Sung styles. As had been the case in previous centuries, the most important painting came from the literati. Two distinct schools of wen-jen hua emerged in the Ch'ing: One group of painters clearly based its work on the masters of the Y?n period; the other, known as the individualists, practiced a freer, less restrained form of painting. The school that drew on Y?n inspiration included many notable artists. Wang Hui produced a massive number of works in the style of such painters as Huang Kung-wang and Tung Chi'i-ch'ang, but he also developed his own style of complex brushwork. Other painters, such as Hung-jen, mastered a single Y?n artist (in this case, Ni Tsan) by copying and working exclusively in that individual's style.

The other school of Ch'ing wen-jen artists rejected the orthodoxy of the adherents to Yuan models. Instead, emphasis was placed on the cultivation of a distinctly individual brushwork. Chu Ta, a Buddhist monk, worked in an unrestrained manner recalling the Zen painters of the Southern Sung. Although many of his figures appear distorted, they never become abstract; his rapidly executed birds and rocks retain their organic form. In a similar way, Tao Chi, also called Shih T'ao, infused his style with an understanding of nature, producing a sense of movement and vitality. He often increased the dynamism of his work by adding areas of blue or pink wash.