Landscape Of The Soul

There Is a way or a manner in which any art form can be presented so that their actual beauty or the purpose with which they have been given shape can be presented or could succeed to achieve an delicate realism so that and so forth that it doesn't leave back a single line of empty space.

These stories illustrate what each form of art is trying to achieve: a perfect, illusionist likeness in one part of the world, the essence of inner life and spirit in another.

In different stories it is mention the way art has been comprehended in its different form, for example, a painting appreciates its outer appearance however, only an artist can reveal to us the true meaning of his work, as he knows the way within. "Dao", a word that means both path or the method, and the mysterious works of the universe. The painting may get destroyed, but the artist has reached his goal-beyond any material appearance.

A classical landscape is not meant to reproduce an actual view, as would a western figurative painting. Whereas the European painter wants you to borrow his eyes and look at a particular landscape exactly as he saw it, from a specific angle, the classical painter does not choose a single viewpoint. His landscape is not a 'real' one, and you can enter it from any point, then travel in it; the artist creates a path for your eyes to travel up and down, then back again, in a leisurely movement. This is even more true in the case of the horizontal scroll, in which the action of slowly opening one section of the painting, then rolling it up to move on to the other, adds a dimension of time which is unknown in any other form of painting.

It also requires the active participation of the viewer, who decides at what pace he will travel through the painting- a participating which is physical as well as mental. The classical painter does not want you to borrow his eyes; he wants you to enter his mind. The landscape is an inner one, a spiritual and conceptual space.

This concept is expressed as Sanshui, literally mean, 'Mountain Water', which used together represent the word 'Landscape'. More than two elements of an image, these represent two complementary poles, reflecting the Daoist view of the universe.
The mountain is Yang- reaching vertically towards Heaven, stable, warm, and dry in the sun, while the water is Yin- horizontal and resting on the earth, fluid, moist and cool. The Interaction of Yin, the receptive, feminine aspect of universal energy, and its counterpart Yang, active and masculine, is of course a fundamental notion of Dauism. What is often overlooked is an essential third element, the middle void where their interaction, takes place. This can be compared with the yogic practice of Pranayama; breath in, retain, breathe out- the suspension of breath is the void where meditation occurs. The middle void is essential-nothing can happen without it; hence the importance of the white, unpainted space in classical landscape.

This is also where man find a fundamental role. In that space between Heaven and Eubh he becomes the conduit of communication between both poles of the universe. His presence is essential, even if it's only suggested; far from being lost or oppressed by the lofty peaks, he is, in Francois Cheng's wonderful expression,
"the eye and the soul of the landscape"