Landscape Painting as Reflected in Chinese Philosophy

Aim

How does Chinese landscape painting reflect Chinese philosophy?

Student Performance Objective

• to identify how landscape painting reflects values.
• to explore the relationship between image and word.

Chinese landscape painting has a long tradition. It is believed that painting on silk began with military flags dating from the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B. C.). By the end of the Han Dynasty (221 B. C.) many Confucian scholars had with drawn from government service and dedicated themselves to calligraphy, poetry and painting. Landscape painting, in Chinese, "mountain water" painting, combined the scholar's retreat to places of natural solitude with the Taoist glorification of nature. The landscape advanced from a secondary role as back ground for portraits and religious figures to a place of primary importance in Chinese painting.

The tradition that developed among the "amateur " scholar-painters was a style limited to a minimum of form and color which distinguished it, intentionally, from the "professional" artists associated with the imperial court. The tools were the tools of calligraphy, the brush and monochrome ink. The writers and poets designated the "shan-shui," mountains and water as the natural setting for human existence. It is not nature by itself but the contemplation of nature by the philosophically minded spirit that is the theme of the painter. The human being, a scholar or fisherman, included. the landscape is not the centerpiece, but a small figure at the side or looking out from a small pavilion. The figure is the observer, contemplating the scene that inspires him and, through him, the view of the painting.

In the long tradition of landscape painting, conventions were established and masters studied. By the Tang Dynasty in 618 B. C.,  the brush strokes used to create the rocks, trees, and mountains were stylized and taught as the "art of the ts'un. " These type forms became so firmly established in the Ming Dynasty (14th century) that artists could paint bamboo, trees, human figures on silk or paper with no preliminary sketches. Landscape painters strove to master the qualities of simplicity, spontaneity, and asymmetry. The goal was to paint not what the eye saw but what the "heart-minded" knew. They were not interested in a static balance, but sought to create a dynamic equilibrium. Attention was paid even to the empty spaces, integral parts of the whole.

The traditional painter did not use the rules of perspective because the scene , was meant to be experienced in its totality. The "bird perspective," shifting the viewer's stand, from aerial view to eye level, and even from below, allows the viewer to follow a path wherever the lines and formations of nature take him. This "bird perspective" is most obvious in the landscapes painted on long handscrolls, meant to be unrolled and contemplated scene by scene of shifting landscape.

Procedure

1. Show slides and visuals. These are available from libraries, museums and may even be in your school's media center.
2. Without first discussing the background information, let students "meet" the art and react.
3. List the words of the student responses on the chalkboard. Have students copy words from the list that they like the best.
4. Suggest "Joint Landscapes"
5. Questions: "What do you see?" "What dominates this scene?"
6. Can you give one word answers to the following? (Poetry)

What do you feel?
What can you smell?
What do your eyes focus on?
What can you hear?
Can you taste the air? What words come to mind?
What role do humans play in this scene?

1. Write a brief essay showing the relationship of traditional Chinese thought to the image you viewed today, or,
2. Using the descriptive language from the board, list any additions you come up with, write a short poem.

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