CHINESE VIEWS OF
NATURE AND ART
I. NATURE
II. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE SAGE
OR ARTIST
III. THE CREATIVE PROCESS
CHINESE VIEWS OF
NATURE AND ART
I. NATURE
 Nonbeing
 Dao (Tao)
 Heaven
 The Creative
NONBEING
 There
is more to reality than we can see or
comprehend. In other words, it does not have
the limitations that Being does.
 That reality is creative. Things of reality emerge
out of it, and return into it.
 Analogy: waves emerging out of an
undifferentiated ocean.
 It
has reality yet there is no place where it
resides--this refers to the dimension of space.
It has duration but no beginning or end--this
refers to the dimension of time. There is life,
there is death, there is coming out, there is
going back in--yet in the coming out and
going back its form is never seen.
--Zhuangzi
“The End, The Beginning”
If there were not an utter and absolute dark
of silence and sheer oblivion
at the core of everything,
how terrible the sun would be,
how ghastly it would be to strike a match, and make a light.
But the very sun himself is pivoted
upon a core of pure oblivion,
so is a candle, even as a match.
And if there were not an absolute, utter forgetting
and a ceasing to know, a perfect ceasing to know
and a silent, sheer cessation of all awareness
how terrible life would be!
how terrible it would be to think and know, to have consciousness!
But dipped, once dipped in dark oblivion
the soul has peace, inward and lovely peace.
--D. H. Lawrence
DAO (TAO)
 The
basic patterns and principles of the
“natural world” we see.
 The world is characterized by orderly change
and harmonious interrelationships.
 Example: yin and yang. These are
complementary opposites: wet and dry, winter
and summer, valley and mountain, dark and
bright, female and male.
 The
Way cannot be heard; heard, it is not the
Way. The Way cannot be seen; seen, it is not
the Way. The Way cannot be described;
described it is not the Way. That which gives
form to the formed is itself formless--can you
understand that? There is no name that fits
the Way.
--Zhuangzi
HEAVEN
 Not
the Heaven of Christianity.
 There is one, organic universe, made of heaven,
earth, and humans.
 2 meanings:
 “the heavens,” as opposed to the earth
 “the sublime principles of the universe.”
The
inaction [spontaneity] of Heaven is
its purity, the inaction of earth is its
peace. So the two inactions combine and
all things are transformed and brought to
birth.
--Zhuangzi
THE CREATIVE
 The
universe exhibits ongoing spontaneous
transformations.
 These are skillful, beautiful, and creative.
 It is an ongoing process that works by itself.
There is no separate Creator, only the
spontaneous creativity of the universe.
II. THE CONSCIOUSNESS
OF THE ARTIST
 Tranquil
observation of nature
 Oneness
with nature
 Bringing
nature within.
Tranquil observation of nature
 Great
art arises out of a highly sensitive
awareness and appreciation of nature.
 The only way we are able to cultivate that
sensitivity is by cultivating an inner calm, a
tranquility that allows us to see clearly and
deeply.
 But
if I did not live in perfect harmony and ease
and were not seated at a bright window before a
clean table burning incense to dispel all
anxieties, the fine verses and excellent ideas
would not take shape; the inner mood and
beauty of their meaning would not be realized
in my thoughts. How can it then be said that the
principal thing in painting is easily reached?
--Guo Xi (Kuo Hsi)
Oneness with nature
 The
great artist and sage goes beyond mere
awareness of nature.
 True consciousness of nature involves the loss of
a sense of a self separate from nature.
 There is no longer a sense of a subjective
consciousness and an objective reality. There is
just: nature.
Bringing nature within,
or entering into nature
 Sometimes
artists and sages talked about this
oneness in terms of nature (e.g., a mountain)
entering into oneself.
 Sometimes they would talk about it as entering
into an object of nature (e.g., a bamboo).
When Yü-k'o painted bamboo,
He saw bamboo, not himself.
Nor was he simply unconscious of himself:
Trance-like, he left his body.
His body was transformed into bamboo,
creating inexhaustible freshness.
--Su Shi
III. THE CREATIVE PROCESS
 The
spontaneity of the artist
 The
artist and the Creative
 The
process (forgetting and waiting)
Spontaneity
A
sage and a great artist does not act out of
desires or will or reason. He acts spontaneously
on his true nature.
 Poems and paintings come naturally of
themselves.
The artist and the Creative
 Artistic
activity arises in a state of calm,
openness, and spontaneity.
 The creativity of the artist is the same kind of
thing as the creativity of nature.
 Since we are essentially a part of nature, and
since the artist acts on his true nature, art is one
manifestation of the Creative.
The process
One of the principal disciplines of the artist is to
remove the obstructions that prevent one from
acting on one’s true nature.
 In general, the process of becoming a great artist
and the process of becoming enlightened is one of
subtraction.
 Sometimes this is talked about in terms of
“forgetting” – forgetting the self, its desires,
concerns about success or acclaim.
 In that state of “forgetting,” what does the artist
do? He “waits”
