Prof.
Dusan Pajin, Arts University, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
INTRODUCTION TO CHINESE ART AND AESTHETICS
On one occasion an art student asked: Is there a history of Chinese
art? When I watch Chinese art all pieces seem to me all alike. Did Chinese
art develop and produce various styles during its history?
Yes, it did, I said. The history of Chinese art is very long and
rich. However, instead of attending a
long and specialized course, there
is a more simple way to reach a primary understanding of some main differences
present in Chinese art. When you
meet Chinese people, in the beginning
they all seem to you very much alike, as if they were each others'
relatives. After a while you begin to notice differences. Finally, after
some time, they look to you quite different individually, just like Europeans.
Now I will help you to notice and understand differences in Chinese art
- without having to go through the long history of Chinese art - just by
pinpointing the differences and opposites, which I will set up in pairs:
large and small, full and empty, etc.
So when you encounter a piece of Chinese art, you will know that
beside being typically “Chinese” there are varieties and different examples
that can belong to the opposite extreme. Also, you will understand that
in Chinese art there is no "essence" related to one of those
extremes, because quite different
examples also exist. After that, Chinese art for you will not be "all
alike" as if it were made up of various copies of the same mold.
LARGE AND SMALL
When they need an example of grandiosity, various authors use as
an example the Chinese wall - the greatest building
enterprise of all times and cultures. It was started in the 3-rd century
B.C. and, with lapses in between, it was built until the 17-th century
A.D. (altogether 2000 years). It is some 2500 kilometers long, and follows
the old borderline between China and Mongolia. The Chinese
wall is an example of restructuring the environment, of separating
a big piece of land from the outer vicious surroundings.
In another example, of a
miniature garden-like arrangement, made in a bowl, that can be seen on
a painting from Ch’ing dynasty (18th c), "The New
Year Splendor" painted by Ch’en Shu, we see a different extreme
- delineating and setting an ambiance in a very small space. Thus in two
examples - one is a big empire, the other a bowl-garden - we see the same
principle of bordering, of defining an environment: a large, and a small
one. A wall is determining the border of an empire and helps in defending
it against intrusion. A bowl serves as a space of a landscape simulacrum.
One of the remarkable
pairs of extremes in Chinese art is large and small - a need to express,
or depict, something in a gigantic, or miniature form. This gigantic 71
m. Buddha from Le-shan, was carved from a hillside,
during the 7th century. To compare, one of the seven miracles of the ancient
world in the West, was Colossus from Rhodos (one of
the Greek islands), who was supposedly 34 meters high. The Colossus inspired
another gigantic figure in modern times - the Statue of
Liberty on Ellis island (46 m. high; 92 m. with the pedestal), mounted
in 1886, while heads of the four USA presidents, (carved in the Rushmore
mountain, between 1927-1941), are 18 m. high.
Opposite to the gigantic Buddha from Le-shan, is the miniaturization
created by Ch’en Tsu-chang in 1737. He carved in an
olive-stone (17x34 mm.) a boat with eight figures. Inside the boat are
the poet Su Tung-p’o and his friends. On the outside bottom of the boat
Ch’en carved the text of Su’s poem, which describes how the poet enjoyed
the boat ride with his friends, on a full moon night. Ch’en created a miniature
monument to the poet, and a powerful metaphor - a boat as a symbol of seclusion,
which can hold man safely on top of life, and water. In various times people
have taken refuge in a boat until the great flood receded and it was possible
to come out again. However, this case is different, related to happy moments
of life.
INNER AND OUTER - GUEST AND HOST
In China there was a division between private (inner), and public
(outer), exemplified in various contexts. In architecture there was a division
between the inner and outer part of the house, and in gardens one can find
inner and outer parts. This can be seen in the Forbidden
city, the Summer palace, and garden complexes
from Shanxi, and Zhejiang.
Experience from communal life and in meditation sharpened the awareness
of difference between the dynamics of inner thoughts and feelings, and
their relatedness to the outer reality, and awareness of the inner, hidden
personality, and the exposed, public personality.
In visual arts the difference between the outer, and inner, as general
ideas, is present in two types of landscapes: the one with the open, and
one with the closed horizon. These landscapes actually exist in China,
as in other parts of the world. Various artists in various periods preferred
and have chosen for their paintings either of these landscapes, as most
suitable to express their feelings and moods.
The landscape with a closed horizon (for example “Traveling
among Streams and Mountains” by Fan Kuan, 990-1040) is suggesting intimacy,
recollection and unexpressed feelings. The spiritual sequence of this landscape
starts from the furthest and highest point and leads to the lowest and
most close part of the painting. In these paintings sometimes small figures
of animals and men are inserted into the big landscape, like needles in
a hay-stack. In some cases the painting "brings us back to ourselves"
- this is suggested by water streams, or water-falls that flow toward the
spectator. It is as if the water, or the whole landscape is streaming toward
the spectator, suggesting a special receptive state of mind, and unity
with nature and its powers.
In the painting "Waiting for the Guests,"
by Ma Lin (from Sung dynasty), the intimate scene of the interior is
contrasted against the twilight surrounding of the landscape. The landscape
leads and focuses us gradually toward the lit scene inside the house -
host waiting for guests. The relationship of the host and guest is important
in China as in some other countries. Guest-host relationship was also a
metaphor in art and meditative experience. In Buddhism the relativity of
guest-host relationship was utilized and articulated in meditation (mind
as host, world as guest - world as host, mind as guest).
Situating the interior into a landscape is an opposite strategy
in comparison to the "borrowed scenery" (chieh-ching).
Chinese garden designers used to “borrow” part of the exterior (landscape
scenery behind a wall), for the interior of the garden space and spectators
who were inside the wall, and making it look like a 3-D painting on the
wall.
In Europe the Renaissance painters introduced the outside landscape
through an opening into the interior scene. This can be seen, for example,
in "The Annunciation", painted by Botticelli
(1489). In China "borrowed scenery" was a recognized strategy
in the interior, and garden design. Designers used to set up openings in
which the outside landscape would appear as a painting in a frame. They
did in reality what was done in the Renaissance on paintings, combining
the exterior and interior, inner and outer, far-away and close-by image.
The difference was that Renaissance painters created a painted illusion,
while Chinese designers created an opposite illusion - turning landscape
into and illusion of a wall painting.
The painting of a landscape with an open horizon (for example
“A Pure and Remote View of Rivers and Mountains,” by Hsian Kuei, 1190-1230)
depicts a view into distant parts, usually from a high point. Sometimes,
such a painting was made in a "cinemascope" fashion - on a long
horizontal scroll, that could not be seen totally in one glance, but unwinded
in succession, from right to left, sequence by sequence.
The landscape painting sometimes contained a short note by the author,
and connoisseurs of later generations - poets, scholars, etc. - who would
express their impressions and admiration in new notes. So after few generations
it contained as a memorandum the experiences of various people related
to the painting.
CLOSED AND OPEN SPACE - CAVE AND THE LANDSCAPE
The Chinese tradition was familiar with withdrawal into the cave,
or going into the mountain and losing oneself amidst clouds, searching
for contemplation and the ultimate attainment (in Taoist, or Buddhist terms).
A legend related with Ta Mo (who supposedly brought Ch’an Buddhism
to China) says that he has spent nine years gazing in front of a wall.
Approximately at the same time (during the 6th century) in caves of Tung-huang,
and in similar grottoes in other places in China, Buddhists made their
sanctuaries. In Tung-huang caves we find interesting wall paintings, a
transformation of landscape in inner experience. In these closed, secluded
places they created bright landscapes with exquisite sense of rhythm, with
gazelles, and horses in hunting scenes, with flying heavenly maidens and
draperies whirling around them, great gatherings accompanied by musicians,
etc. They recreated a complete universe inside these grottoes with rhythm
and dynamic that suggest delight, freedom from gravity, and tectonics.
Records of contemplation of landscape in open space can be found
in paintings of Ma Yüan and Ma Lin (from Sung dynasty). That experience
can be related to aesthetic contemplation of certain aspects of nature
(as presented in the painting "Listening to the Wind
in Pines," by Ma Lin, in 1246), or with the general experience
of landscape. We also see that in the Renaissance, Bellini (in 1485) shows
us St. Francis coming out of his cave, with his Canticle
to the Brother Sun, on one sunny day, while in his "Tempest",
Giorgone (1505) brings mother and child into the landscape.
CENTER AND PERIPHERY - CLOSENESS AND REMOTENESS
Deepest insights in China combine the inner and outer, close and
remote, host and guest. Number five is related to the center and four directions
leading to remote periphery. The character "chung" designated
the middle. The imperial dragon with its centered
power and volatileness to the four directions expresses the relationship
of the center and periphery, and the power of the emperor, who stays in
the capital, while governing the far-away provinces. A person mastering
t’ai-chi ch’uan keeps his balance and power centered, but ready
to move into any of the four directions. The sage in Lao-tzu (ch.
10) holds fast to the unity, but follows everything; concentrates his breath
but is flexible; clears his vision of the mystery, but does not close his
eyes; he is kind to people, but does not lay claim on them. He can even
fall asleep on a tiger, like the Ch’an master on a painting
by Shih K’o (10th c.). A man immersed deeply in meditation is far-away
from the uproar of the world, but completely awake; composed, but ready
to act.
On a painting by Chou Ch’en, "Dreaming of
Immortality in a Thatched Cottage" (16th century), we see a man
in a cottage on the edge of a hill, while his immortal double is levitating
in free space. The painting brings together seclusion, and open space,
closeness and remoteness, introversion and extroversion. The sage and hermit
sometimes leave the world, and go to the mountain or cave, into remote
natural ambiance, away from the uproar of cities, and competition in society.
After a while they come back, to share with others some peace and light.
FULL AND EMPTY
Lao Tzu says that tao is like space between heaven and earth: empty,
but ten thousand beings abide in it. The visual arts utilize full and empty,
moving in-between. Some works are full to the brim, while others are empty,
or almost empty, and sometimes displaying decoration type based on dripping
and leak, which was used in the West much later, after action painting
- as on bottles from the 10th c. Some vases are decorated
leaving no empty space (like the one depicting tributes
to the Emperor, from the 18th c.) , while others are just plain. Most
people in the West are more familiar with the first type.
In different periods art moves from full to empty, or from empty
to increasingly full. However, full seem to suit better the taste of most
people. In the 18th century, when the Chinese art became popular in Europe,
especially in France (chinoiserie), the governing taste preferred
this type of vases, mostly from the Ch’ing dynasty.
Works of artist who preferred emptiness are less known, and attracted
wider attention later, in the second half of the 20th century, when Ch’an
Buddhism and its art were better known. These artists did not fill the
available surface to the brim, but tried to attained maximum using minimum,
like Chu Ta (1625-1705). They gave up color, using
only black ink, and with few strokes suggested the whole scene (a person,
a landscape, or an animal). Sometimes the main figure is moved to one side,
or corner, and the middle is occupied by empty space.
In architecture and visual arts the Chinese combined symmetry and
asymmetry. Many palaces (see Main entrance to the Forbidden
City, in Beijing, and its Main Hall with the Emperors
throne), pagodas, temples (see the Temple of Buddhist
Virtue, in Summer Palace), and environments, are symmetric. Certain
gardens, landscape designs, paintings, etc., are governed by asymmetry.
Symmetry is based on expected. Asymmetry is related to surprise and wonder.
ORDER AND CHAOS - INTENTION AND CHANCE
An artist tries to attain perfection and order, to realize his intentions
fully, but at the same time he is aware that accident, chance, spontaneity,
and disorder significantly contribute to the outcome and result of his
work. He knows that the work of art completely subjected to the first,
can lack naturalness and spirit, can be boring and flat. Back in the times
of T’ang dynasty, aesthetics of spontaneous natural forms was developed
in relation to garden rocks. These rocks were formed
by the chaotic interplay of water and stone, and favorite pieces were picked
up from lake T’ai. There were brought to gardens, and courtyards, and put
on prominent places, like statues in European gardens.
For the same reason artists-carvers searched for pieces of wood
or jade, and started their work only after seeing in their natural pattern
the forms they wanted to cut out. In this way they connected chance and
intention, spontaneity and skill, order and naturalness, natural form and
art form. In painting artists would sometimes start from a spontaneous
stroke or spattering, and then with few intentional strokes bring forth
a landscape, or human figures, like Yü-chien in his “Mountain
Village” (13th c.).
Some paintings are made by invisible strokes - one cannot see how
thick was the brush, and in which direction it moved. In some paintings
the stroke is intentionally visible, it is a non-verbal calligraphy, especially
with Ch’an painters. Later it was taken over and developed as an independent
style, by painters like Hsü Wei (1521-1593 - for example in “Four
Seasons”), and Chang Feng (1654-1673).
In certain periods we could
find in the tradition of Ch’an examples of both kinds of painting: with
visible and invisible stroke. Both are works of anonymous authors, from
the thirteenth century. One is a portrait of Ch'an master Wu-chun,
and the other is a copy by an anon. painter, of Shih K'o’s
pair of hanging scrolls, with patriarchs harmonizing their minds.
Many paintings, or decorations on snuff bottles, are done with invisible
strokes, depicting birds, hyper-realistic flowers, or cats in a garden
(Mao I, 12th c.: “Cat and Kittens”). Some embroideries
on silk are done with imperceptible stitches.
In ceramics, smooth glazes were a Chinese specialty for thousands
of years. However, the Chinese were also the first who became bored by
perfectly smooth glazes. There are different stories concerning various
inventions in this field. However, cracked glaze was probably not discovered
on purpose, but by chance. What was a mistake soon became a fashion and
style, and various types of non-smooth types of glaze were discovered and
named, according to their resemblance, as "ice-flake,"
"eel's blood," "hundred shards," "worms track,"
"orange-peel," "hare's fur."
We hope this will help you to understand diversities of Chinese
art, choose your favorites, and focus your attention, according to your
taste and interest.
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Chinese wall (2500 km., built between 3rd c. B.C.-17th c. A.D.). - 1a. Chinese wall at night
2. Ch’en Shu: "The New Year Splendor" (Ch’ing dynasty - 18th c.)
3. Buddha - Le shan mountain (71 m.- 7th c.)
4. Colossus from Rhodos (supposedly 34 m.)
5. The Statue of Liberty, New York harbour, Ellis island (1886 - 46 m.; 92 m. with the pedestal)
6. Gutzon Borglum: USA presidents: Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln (Rushmore mountain, cca. 20 m. - carved between 1927-1941).
7. Ch’en Tsu-chang (1737): Su Tung-p’o with Friends in a Boat (17x34 mm.)
8. Fan Kuan (990-1040): “Traveling among Streams and Mountains”
9. Ma Lin (mid 13th c.): "Waiting for the Guests"
10. Borrowed scenery in a garden wall (17th. c.)
11. A bottle with drip and leak decoration, and orange-peel glaze (10th .c)
12. Hsia Kuei (1190-1230): “A Pure and Remote View of Rivers and Mountains”
13. Musicians - wall painting in Tung-hung cave sanctuary (6th c.)
14. Ma Lin (1246): "Listening to the Wind in Pines"
15. Bellini (1485): “St. Francis Coming out of his Cave”
16. Dragon on a bowl (Ming dynasty)
17. Shih K’o (10th c.): “Ch’an Master Sleeping on a Tiger”
18. Chou Ch’en: "Dreaming of Immortality in a Thatched Cottage" (16th c.)
19. Chu Ta (1625-1705): “Bird on a Lotus”
20. Garden rocks (16th c.)
21. Yü-chien (13th c.): “Mountain Village in Fog”
22. Mao I (12th c.): “Cat and Kittens”
23. Hsü Wei (1521-1593) - leaf of a set of four, in “Four Seasons”
24. Ch'an master Wu-chun (Anon. - 1238)
25. Types of glazes on ceramics
26. Vase depicting tribute bearers to the Emperor (Ch’ing dynasty - 18th c.)
27. Sandro Botticelli (1489): "The Annunciation"
28. Giorgone (1505): "Tempest"
29. The Temple of Buddhist Virtue, in the Summer Palace complex
30. The Main Hall with Emperor's throne (Forbidden City, Beijing) - 30a. Main entrance to the Forbidden City
