The Exact Discipline Germinates the Seemingly Easiness(part 3)------ a painstaking construct to accommodate safty and relaxation

Another scroll named “Lying in the shade of pagoda tree to dispel summer heat”having the classical idiom of imperial art of Song dynasty is executed by an anonymous court painter .The conscientious and meticulos attitude of mind is fully displayed in the layout of the artpiece. Furthermore,with his artistic attainments and adaptable wits,the artist achieved the unity of shape and vividness in a genre scene.In the painting,a platform bed is the major element,with a man lying down who is fully stretching and exposing most part of his chest.It is the natural pose of a man to cool off in high summer.On the left end of the bed,a screen being attached served as the head of a bed which guarded the sleeper’s head.Therefore in a semi-enclosure he could sleep in privacy,so as not to be exposed in wide open.However, the conscientiousness of the artist is down to the very last detail.The painting of the screen is a winter scene.The screen bordered on the edge of the scroll and was cut short.However,having a glimpse of it,we still can see the hills covered with snow with bare branches, which is an interesting comparison with the thick tree-crown of the pagoda tree outside.The delightful inventiveness of the artist indicates a kind of feeling nice and cool mentally by veiwing a chilly winter landscape when someone wakes up from his nap.The ingenuity is easily passed over with a quick look.

As regards physical ingredients arranged on a flat ground seem that the rectilinear forms dominate the overall arrangment of the picture:the figure lying in the oblong shaped bed with one end attached to the rectangular screen,assorted objects on a rectangle table which is adjacent the bed.Especially the table in black silhouette at a distance having considerable visual weigh in relation to the group of rectilinear objects in the foreground holds the observer’s attention, and one is willing to identify the formal complexity,intricacy of the tininess of objects on it. However,our visual observations would not be help up by the careful perusal of the clarity of particulars.Our sight would go further up,induced by the upright positioned trunk on the left.The tininess and neatly depicted leaves exert their fascination of softness,still more the comfort to shelter one from summer heat.Such intrinsic interest let us glance the whole length of the upper border of the scroll. Subsequently,the oblique top view of the screen on the left leads our eye sights to the lying figure.He is the main subject-matter of the painting.And what all we have scrutinized beforehand are the ideal setting and foils to him.

To some extent the Chinese sense of contained volume is demonstrated in the figure which drew by contours are purely linear.The movement of the actual lines is clearly intended to be three dimensional,but by no means bound to the sihouette of the object.They lead the eye over, under, around and behind the body in the picture.The lines of draperies double back upon themselves in serpentine folds.The configuration and interplay of the liveliness and neatness of a multiplicity of varied lines showing their ethereal nature not only delineate the suppleness of the raiment,but also develop graceful circular rhythms in a continuum of undulating movement.Even the tigs of the belt being the insignificant details were drawn earnestly,they seem to float and flutter as to form the beautiful twists.As a matter of fact,the whole curvaceous weaving tissues of pattern is excuted  with”long-breathed”line which the artist depends upon a kind of mental concentration and immediate control of movement.Therefore the whole interest of the figure lies in the vivid expression of movement and life given by springing brush lines;moreover the freedom of linear expression respones to the artist’s unspeakable mentality and emotion,abandoned the restriction of imitating the composition of human shape,from which an unfettered effect is given to the figure. The very structure of the weaving tissues of curved lines are the experienced reality as a continuous web of movement and change out of which patterns of process are selected for identification as the perceptual forces inherent in it.Therefore the angular objects,the rectilinear forms do not predominate over the curved,the soft part which is constantly drawing new energy from its environment .In fact,the setting and foils have formed a niche to accommodate safty and relaxation.

Speaking of the angular objects in the scroll,they are not the transcription of the seen world through the sober means of the pure craft of painting.The precision and exactness is demonstrated,but also a sensitive response to the organization and overall coherence.The bed and table are depicted as”inverted perspective”,appearing as the opposite of what the imitation of nature would suggest.Instead of converging toward distance,the visual perceptions of the bed and the table are divergent.The artist adopts the inverted angle to let the surface of the bed broaden toward the back and then the broadened locus make more room for the rhythmic curvilineal form to exhibit itself.On another hand,as there does not exist the adherence to convergent perspective,the visual conveniences are so obvious that the artist could freely organize the layout to reconcile incongruous formal elements to achieve the bravura effect with the seemingly effortless artifice.

The Exact Discipline Germinates the Seemingly Easiness(part 2)------striking a deep chord in the reality of nature

By veiwing the works from the imperial academy of Song dynasty(960-1127),the unity of all the ingredients in the paintings being so elegant and quiet,we easily take for granted that the expressive methods are as simple and leisure as what we have seen.On the contrary,it is a struggle of reaching the peak of perfection and then at the summit of success reverts to the relaxation of calm and serenity. At that moment,the bright and dazzling splendour turns into sunshine and fresh air making the atmosphere so warm and charming that we are carried away and we ignore this plain style is an enormous achievement with great sense of dedication and commitment.Of course,these court painters gained full support of the emperor could be an advantage,but the patronage of emperor Hui Tsung (reigned 1101-1126) is not only that he was a most competent painter himself and was partial to the styles which he loved the best.Emperor Hui Tsung understood that it was the critical moment of the development of national painting. He knew well of the trends at that time and deployed all the forces of his enthusiams with the enforcement of strong administrative measures as to cultivate the court painters,to improve them to be the literate artists.So at that time, to get into the Royal Art Academy was not by dint of playing up to those in power,but had to went through the screening test of the Academy.Furthermore,the admitted candidates had to participate the training courses of the Academy.Therefore, although the court painter were highly skilled,the Emperor still demanded them to get improvements progressively.

On one occation,the construction of a new palace had completed,and the count painters were painting on the walls and on the screens as the interior decoration.What being painted were all beautiful artworks but which was not very much appreciated by the emperor.Only a work piece named”Slanting Branches of Chinese roses”by a young artist was praised by Hui Tsung,and he was granted a handsome reward.The rewarded painting represented the blossoming roses with the particular comfiguration of petals,leaves,pistils and sepals to reveal that the time of blooming was exactly at noon without the slightest error.With keen observation,the artist could grasp the characteristics of Chinese rose,for the look of it is not the same in four seasons and it has subtle change in one day. Sometimes,during the visit to the new palace where had newly painted murals,if the emperor found that some paintings on the walls could not reach a higher standard of accomplishments,he would give orders to smear the murals and asked the artists to reconstruct them.

In order to attain to the demanding requirements,the court artists were driven to develop the scrupulous attentions to reality,and at the same time they had to interpret the reality of nature with subtle feeling for nuance.In the meantime,their experienced hands would become more and more dexterous.This style of slow reflective manner which was very elaborate and relied on a meticulous description of the subject compounded with a miniaturist’s treatment of detail was by no means exemplified some flawed probables such as the rigidity of configurations or to stifle the vigorous imaginations of individual artists.It is because whether the court painters open or close their eyes to the outside world,they do not draw a single line,nor execute a single brush-stroke without striking a deep chord in the reality of nature,drawing the strength of their expressions from the earth itself. The scroll here illustrates the delicacy and intricacy of such style in which a basket of flowers is easily recognizable;for there is life in the colors and lines,so the assorted flowers seems to be plucked from different bushes and were placed in the basket just a moment ago.Now the fleshness of nature is preserved for us to savour and it had been prepared by the experienced hands almost one thousand year ago.

The Exact Discipline Germinates the Seemingly Easiness(part 1)------the unremitting efforts beneath the charm of a masterpiece

The core of Chinese traditional culture is that one should first cultivate the selfhood to maturity,having a sound moral integrity,and then one could deal with many other things with great facility.As in the domain of calligraphy,our tradition deemed that even a skillful calligrapher,if he has fraulty moral quality , he could not compose the superb works.So the prerequisite to be an superlative calligraper is that he has a good mind of self-government, rather than the solely pursuit of technique. Our tradition thought highly of the value of a man’s intrinsic worth all the way.Therefore,thousands and thousands of words of the Confucian ethics about denying self to observe the proprieties,tenets of Mencius teaching us to cherish intentions to be a sage,all induce the following generations to pursue the goal of perfection of our inner life.The kaleidoscopic picture of the world could easily make people lose the orientations and get dazzled by the capricious phenomena. Therefore with the capability of restraining oneself, we gain ourselves the firm stances with which would enable us to handle the reticular situations and tackle the intricate state of affairs much easier.

Harking back to the topic of calligraphy and painting, many of them seem to be effortless rendering of accomplishments.However it is inconceivable for the outsiders to know how painstaking the artists made efforts to polish their spirits and the required expressive skills.The great artist Wen Zheng Ming(1470-1559) of Ming dynasty was a modest and amiable man,and would not ingratiate himself with the bigwigs.The regular script which he wrote is good example for us to learn of how a high level of aesthetic value could be arrived at.As a matter of fact,he had imitated many calligraphy of others with his own conception of the vitality being perfusing to every single stroke.The whole impression of his calligraphy is the briskness in the resplendent and dignified style which let us not fed up with repeated appreciation.According to legend,even he reached his old age of eighty years, he would compose his teeny calligraphy of the “Thousand Character Classic” once with the wrist raised every morning.We could see that a real master having the spirit of self-denial,would never slack up even when he had made a name for himself.Therefore the charms of the masterpieces are the manifestation of the rigorous self-discipline towards perfectibility.If we only follow the trails of the attention-getting appearance of the artpieces,without knowing the importance of the endurance to cultivate our inner selves.We are just like sacrifice the substance for the shadow and could not fulfil ourselves as the true artists or the true connoisseurs in the end.

Attitude towards life and art appreciation (part 3)to enjoy the pleasure of doing for nothing

Another artpiece being shown does not employ scenes from common life as decorative subject. Therefore to appreciate this kind of art object ,we could not find the analogue in our experience,for it was not designed for a delightful visual experience. It is a kind of imposing manner of kingliness,a special augustness of Chinese nation,manifesting the latent aweinspiring power.This art object is named as “Blue-and-white Goblet with Patterns of Animal Face”. Porcelain goblets began to appear in Yuan Dynasty(1271-1368)and prevailed in the reign of Kangxi (1662-1722) of Qing dynasty(1644-1911).The vessel has also been known as “Phoenix-tail Zun”,because of the outwardly everting mouth.The flared mouch catches our attentions immediately and the two energetic arcs stretching out to form the mouth enhanced its upstanding stateliness.

Comparing the goblet with the “Stone standing figure of Sakyamuni”,we could feel that they both are invested with an air of determent.The head of Sakyamuni is missing. The kasaya mantle falls down the body in a series of pleats.U-shaped on the figure’s right,vertical on the left.The inner robe closes on the right,its pleated hem visible above the bare feet.The suppleness of the raiment shows the well-proportional,somewhat attenuated body beneath.However,the broad shoulders with straight posture let our glances move upward,establishing a leitmotif of soaring aspiration which is the perceivable mana carrying the standing figure beyoud worldly bounds.When our eyes move downward,we would surprisingly find that the body underneath the drapery is not of human flesh and blood; it is the incarnation with supernatural power.Looking at the standing unsophisticated and sedate goblet,we can feel that the same kind of supernatual power is lying and would be wielded any time. Therefore on the swelling abdomen of the goblet is decorated with patterns of animal faces imitating those on ancient copperwares.This portrayed mythical beast is a symbol of pristine mana.These two art pieces are present in all their majesties which should reach beyond our daily experience.From these examples, we could understand that the construct of an valuable artpiece is very conscientious and careful;otherwise,what is the difference of the artistic porcelains and the mass production of household utensils?

It is said that “a porcelain living to everlasting longevity,hundred dynasties withered away successively.” Therefore

it is ridiculous to use our short life span to measure the existing values of the geniune works of arts.It is also said that there would come the healing effects to get rid of our deseases and keep us to live as long as we can by our genuine admirations of arts.It is because we are communicating with the late talented creators of the art objects while we are appreciating their works.The late artists had wholeheartly exerted all their strength and had dedicated their lives and emotions to make something towards perfection.If we use the same efforts to cultivate our bodies and minds that we ourselves could achieve something equal to the quality of an art object for ourselves.Then the inner virtue could dispel our gloomy mood and restrain our self-indulgence,and then we could live longer for we are much healthier physically and mentally.

Or maybe by looking at these esquisite art treasures,we should contemplate why the the artists make so much efforts to make these products.What are their germinal motives for creative inventions?All great artists have the hearts of children for they enjoy the courses of creations ,without utilitarian purposes,but play this creative game seriously; that are just like the children who find that playing with muds is fun,isn’t it?Both children and artists could enjoy the pleasure of doing for nothing. Therefore appreciation could bring us great joys or enlightenment which is of no practical use.However,the long-term benefits are so enormous and that the short- sighted persons could not see it clearly.

Attitude towards life and art appreciation (part 2) breathed a living soul into the body of clay

An veteran artist is affectionate to the source materials which was fondled by his own hands to construct the lively image,no matter what type of arts the artist engages himself in.The source materials seem to work mojo on the artist and let him can envisage what lively object would be born in the future.One morning in Beijing,the snowfall just stopped,and I was taking a walk with a ceramist along the snow covered path.At that time,she suddenly cried out excitedly ” O earth!” as it turned out that there was a small plot of particularly eye-catching mud exposing itself in the midst of the overall snow white color.Mud alone is already a very interesting thing.Could we remember that when we were kids,just playing mud with the simple tools of plastic buckets,plastic shovels was something so exuberant and we were fully content to knead and mold our images with our small hands all day long?

 In fact, “China” as the English translated term of “中國” originated from the playing with soils.Our ancestors in the darkness of humanity,fascinated with the magical transformation of soils, for the soils mixed up with water,then being burnt by fire and then after the mixture had gone through the chemical action,which could turn into something new and became useful utensils .It was a tremendous discovery! After such surprising achievement,they invested all their enthusiasm and wisdom to try all the possibilities to continue to attain excellence. Such exploratory attitude carrying on from generation to generation,with the unremitting efforts,both mental and physical,the extraordinary cultural tendencies of Chinese people fulfilled a kind of supreme creation and such success of material civilization conquered the hearts of the whole world.The being stunned world used “China” as a respectful form of address to name our country.The meaning of it is “porcelain country”.To take possession of fame and prestige was not the purpose of our ancestors to take up the hardships of exploration. Their dedications just simply aim to evolve another kind of life form with soils and eventually the outcome was unexpected.With all the conscious and unconscious willpowers,our ancestors breathed a living soul into the body of clay and let it became a part of a nation.

We could sense the individual dispositions or temperaments of the valuable porcelain if we view it as having flesh and blood of its own. From appraising the following workpieces, we could take the cognizance of how unique is the styles.Viewing the vase decorated with patterns of lotuses, we can feel the graceful rhythms of the curvy contours which is well-rounded in form and seems to be full of springiness.As to respond to the vitality of form and structure,the artist put the most brisk scene of nature to the layout of the vase.From the scene we can see that it is the high summer,and twists and turns of the lotus leaves ,the popple of waves, the sinuous lines of the flowers are so curvaceous,that they all echo with the elegant demeanor of the vase. As an integral, it gives us an impression of attractive pretty. Such gaily feeling also could be aroused by veiwing the painted pottery figure of a woman with a waist drum.The figure has a plump face.Her hair is styled in double buns.She wears a half-sleeved coat and a long skit with alternating red and white stripes.In a kneeling posture,the woman has a waist drum,as if playing in accompaniment.Such cute figure of Tong dynasty(618-907) yielding the pleasant mood as that of the vase is also good to see.

The rounded belly of that pear-shaped vase,the horizontally placed drum on the lap of the figure, both attract our attention towards their lower part and induce the quiet and comfortable feelings in us. However,we would not overlook the slanting shoulder, narrow neck and the everted mouthrim which may be seen as a series of gradually flux of the symmetrical glaceful curvilineal form.It is because the two lotus flowers extended upward just as the high pitch of a melody is attention-getting.The dainty countenance and the double buns of the lady also capture our attention and let us not to miss the delicate beauty of the upper part.The design of a blossomy pond with superb techniques in subtle and lyrical colour tone seem to resonate with the sweet music played by the lovely lady.They both convey the amiable,pleasant charm that of the same rhyme to let us have the feelings of briskness and refreshment.

Attitude towards life and art appreciation (part 1)the fleeting existence is eternalized

Arts rarely can be placed in the core of most people’s life. When we feel the necessity of beautifying our appearances, glorifying our living places,then we would seek for the artistic ways which are well suited to our needs, and at this moment we would be considering things in an aesthetic way. After such practical purpose was fulfilled, we continue the routine works day in day out,and forgot what we had earnestly quested for making our life much more beautiful.Maybe only the exorbitant price of an artwork could urge us to have a look of it to find out why the price of a picture could be such stiff. It is the same we wonder how could the price of Van Gogh’s Sunflower be surprisingly high when we can spend some money to buy a bunch of sunflowers to decorate our living rooms.Whenever we consider art just as something may or may not be needed in our daily livings then we could never understand arts.

The authentic arts will not die away as time goes by; the life of arts is longer than the mortals. Therefore as long as the human society is existing,the life of a ture valuable piece will be preserved.Many people have been lamented over the transience of life since long long time ago.We can do nothing of the final stage of life,but the talented artist could turn his own physical life into the form of artistic life,to become eternal.No matter whether he is a an skilled craftsman or a dexterous painter, only that he knows how to deplete his capacity and wisom in the right channel.Therefore the reason why the true arts is a treasure of priceless worth,is that it is the fleeting existence being eternalized.

Arts really has soul in itself.The prominent “Mona Lisa” still captivates us whenever we look at her.We seem to be enveloped in her mysterious willpower. We are doubtful about ourselves by her unfathomable smile,for she seems to be mocking at us with the slightest sadness at the corners of her mouth. To witness such duende of a painting is unbelievable and how can an artist infuse spirit in the inert oil paint?The time for a painting being rendered to perfection by Da Vinci needed years;therefore all his masterpieces were his long-drawn-out hard working outcome. A contemporary of Da Vici had witnessed the process of the creation of “The Last Supper”and what he had said could let us know how an arduous task Da Vici was tackling everyday to fulfil a commitment which he continued to do for years.It was said that during the prolonged depicting progression,Da Vici needed to climb up to a platform to begin his daily routine works.On the platform,holding his arms,Da Vinci scrutinized his project fastidiously almost all day long,and then after serious deliberation,he put serveral strokes on it.Therefore the task of an ingenious artist is much more complicated and niggling than the ordinary people have to deal with in everythday lives.It is because the birth of a new life in an art form needs the meticulous care of incubation, preoccupation and preciseness.

The Silken Embroidery of Antique Collection(part 3)

The dexterous hands of the Chinese women have brought their artistic accomplishments into full play. From metriculous décor revealing hierarchical ranks on the gorgeous robes,to daily clothing,personal accessories are all their skillful abilities to execute diverse stitches with needle and thread. These kinds of exquisite stitchery could be sold to pay the cost of living when a family met their financial difficulties. With their hands,women not only had created the material possessions,but the values of the distinguishing characteristic of an unique culture embodied in this beautiful handiwork also attracted many collectors and became a kind of their treasured items.

By doing the needleworks,the vapidity of life in the feudalist society would be added with some vitality and the women could benefit from the process of image-making,for they were constructing the iridescent world with slender needles and tenuous thread,in which everything was so different from the male-dominated society where they were living in.Especially for the maids and court ladies who lived in the palace chambers had little contact with the outside world. Sometimes the stitchwork was not done for the need of people;it was a favour for animals. The illustration showing a piece of green satin embroidered cloth enframed with red satin and many orange strings being sewed on was a coat for pet dog in Qing dynasty. Keeping pet dogs was a pastime taken up with great enthusiasm by court ladies in the late Qing,a trend which may be traced to influence from the west.Dogs appear in many of the extant photographs of domestic life in the Qing palace.The dog’s coat,of aquamarine satin embroidered with floral design,is very appealing in its soft colours.It must have been worn by one of Cixi’s dogs.

Empress Dowager Cixi,for most of the 47 years from 1861,when the five-year-old heir succeeded to the throne,to her death in 1908, was the de facto ruler of China. She loved dogs.She often had a dog on her lap or around her feet,and dogs are seen on numbers of photographs and paintings of her.Her dogs would wear silk or satin coats made specially for them,and some had their portraits painted.The eye-catching pet coat being shown in the picture was sewed with scrupulous care by the completely symmetrical fancy embroidery patterns on both sides. The floral needlework is more or less the same of the classical Chinese painting on silk,and therefore it would be equally a brilliant stitched foral pattern on the clothes for ladies.

The elaborative piece of work requires not only the superb skills and ideas,but also time.It is a time- consuming task to combine the multi-colored filaments with fine needle in vivid forms of all kind which are the visible shapes of content. All shapes in the embroidery are semantic;that is, they make statements about kinds of subjects which speak of the circumspect and attentive nature of the femininity.Nowadays,many embroideries and folk handiwork being sold in the tourist gift shops are rough products. Moreover in our modern world, the disposable products are so popular that we discard them when they are useless. Clothings,all kind of devices and daily commodities are just things

for use and we do not cherish them. It is also the way we treat interpersonal relationship,for

we get used to think of the short-term utilitarianism, the meaningful and long-lasting relationship is not a priority. Therefore the traditional silken embroidery savors of a oblivious deep- going affection and we enjoy the pleasures of the reminiscence which is aroused by appreciating the gorgeousdécor of silken embroidery.Furthermore, it is a comfort to imagine the gentle and tender hands keep doing the needlework patiently with her heart and soul.(THE END)

The Silken Embroidery of Antique Collection(part 2)

This beautiful embroidery is in possession of both the graceful and gorgeous decorative manner which could be applied to the attire of every description,namely clothing,hats,shoes,and even some daily gadgets. From the picture we can see a sheath which was made to hold the items needed to make a fire in the days before the invention of matches.To light a fire,the stone would be wrapped around the fabric and rubbed against the sickle until sparks came off to start an ignition.The satin sheath,finely embroidered with scrolling lotuses in bright colours,was made in the Guangxi period(1875-1908) of Qing dynasty. The well thought-out décor was worked out to the fine detail in this small gadget.The curvy contour of the golden buckle echoes with the undulated floral pattern of the sheath;the ingenuity being shown in the meticulous design in low relief of the buckle reflects the taste for luxury even in a igniter.When its practicality was replaced by modern invention, it turned into a valuable antique.

In another domain of arts and crafts,the uncanny ability of the dexterous hands could handle the needle as brush,the colorful thread as visual elements to “draw” a painting,expressing the fine brushwork of delicacy,or the freehand brushwork to catch the essential likeness.This expressive measure first appeared in Tang dynasty(618-907),but it was mainly used to embroider calligraphy,only occasionally for drawing; and was still mainly used for the décor of clothing. Until Song dynasty (960-1127),using embroidery as a means to convey the distintion of brushwork gradually had gained popularity and became very flourish.Of these fine Song embroideries,the needle being used was as thin as hair,the filament as dainty as silk;as for the coloring,they were exquisite and glittering.If the embroidering craftmanship was used to depicting landscape,the scenery displayed a long-ranged view, and all the pavilions and towers manifested their third object dimensions;the figures in the landscape were so vivid that they seemed to be gazing at the distant view. Regarding the embroideries of flower and bird painting, the flowers were graceful and attractive while the chirpy birds seemed to be perching on the branches. The fine works among those traditional embroidered paintings ,their qualities are even better than that of the real paintings!

 After Song dynasty,the most famous embroideries were named “Gu embroidery”which was initiated in Ming dynasty(1368-1644)by the womenfolk of an official family in which the surname of the official was “Gu”, and this gorgeous handiwork by the ingenious harem gradually developed into commercial bussiness. Owing to the consummate skill from the boudoir of “Gu”, ”Gu embroidery” was known far and wide,and in great demand.Then at the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in the late period, the shops selling embroideries in some prosperous cities of China,namely Suzhou and Shanghai,would named their shops as “Gu Embroidery” or “Embroidery of Gu Household”. Reverting to the Gu family in Ming dynasty,they had became nouveau pauvre later and had to tackle with their financial problem. Fortunately, their living expenses could rely on the skilled handiwork of the harem.Perhaps it was an unexpected outcome to the family as needlework at that time was for the womenfolk to kill time and the handmade products only for the need of a family.