The relationship between "tradition" and "innovation" has been a major issue in art and culture for centuries. Since the Ch'ing period, this issue has also become interwoven with the question of "cultural assimilation" to produce an even more complex situation. While some Chinese have taken quite a rational view of the issues involved, there have also been a raft of more immature reactions including those of being mired in the past, casting doubt on antiquity, worshipping all things western, and rejecting all things foreign. Within this context, the achievement of Chang Dai-ch'ien, P'u Hsin-yu and Huang Chun-pi in actively "developing" tradition and opening up fresh avenues is particularly worthy of attention. The present paper, which consists of four parts, sets out to explore how these three artists handled the relationship between "tradition" and "innovation". The first section discusses the three painters' models of artistic study. To all three it was of utmost significance for the artist to devote time to reading and inner cultivation, and to the development of his personality. They considered copying from exemplars and painting from the life to be equally important, as enabling them to learn from earlier artists' mastery both of brush and ink and of evocative atmosphere, while also learning to appreciate the ways of nature. They also highlighted the question of the correlation between Chinese painting's language of "brushwork and ink texture" and its modes of thinking about imagery. The second section discusses "how" these three artists evaluated tradition, and "what" tradition it was that they developed. Examples are given of traditional material developed by each of the three painters, showing how the three were mutually complementary and thus made possible a comprehensive development of the traditions of various schools of painting of different periods beginning with the T'ang period. They also succeeded in incorporating external traditions. The third section discusses the three painters' fundamental brush and ink structures. Brush and ink structure also has its own vocabulary, sentence patterns and grammar, and from this angle it is possible to establish the degree of correlation between the language structure in the paintings of these three artists and centuriesold languages of painting such as "outline and colouring," "boneless painting, " "meticulous-brushwork painting," and "impressionistic painting." It is acknowledged that these three masters created new brush and ink structures based on convergence of "surface and line, colour and ink" which are wholly contemporary. The fourth section discusses the question of expression in the paintings of these three artists. All three painters encompassed an extensive range of subject-matter, including landscape, figures, flowers, birds and animals, with a wide range of resonance between "copying from exemplars" and "painting from the life." All three artists used new insights and methods to create new artistic concepts which both integrate poetry, calligraphy and painting and celebrate fresh modern perceptions.