Mountain And Flowing Water

Based on Chinese traditional painting and aesthetic point of view, the paper,through an integrative approach, abstracts the natural aesthetic spirit embodied inChinese mountains-and-waters painting.The mountains-and-waters painting is an important branch of Chinese traditionalpainting. Theoretically, it dates from the Six Dynasties and became mature and theprincipal part of Chinese painting in the Five Dynasties and the later Two SongDynasties after a long-time development. From Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, itbegan to exchange ideas with European paintings and they have been influencing eachother. Since it came into being, Mountains-and-waters painting has always been a waypainters used to express their views of nature or the relation between nature and man.Chinese's deep love towards mountains and waters originates from the influenceof philosophical ideas. Painters express their philosophical views through theirpainting of nature. Ever since Zhuang Zi, a philosopher in ancient China, a naturalaesthetic view has been taken by human beings. The longing for mountains andwaters is not merely enjoyment in general sense, but man's understanding of"Heaven", "Tao" and "Nature".Since the beginning of the written history of China, Chinese have always takenheaven and nature as objects and bases on which they understand the world. Zhao Ji,an ancient Chinese king, is such an example, who expressed in his paintings theconcepts of integration of heaven and man" and "in line with the principle of theheaven and the earth". Painters of different times and situations, regardless of thedifference in status and mood, all take paintings of mountains and rivers as a too toexpress their personalities and views towards the contemporary societies.The paper consists of three chapters. Chapter One concerns different views ofnature and painting. Starting from the philosophical ideas of Zhuang Zi, views of therelationships overlapped among man, mountains-and-waters paintings and nature arepresented concerning four historical periods: Wei Dynasty, Jin Dynasty and theNorthern and Southern Dynasties; Tang Dynasty; the Five Dynasties and the two Song Dynasties; Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. Chapter Two takesrepresentative painters and their works to illustrate the embodiment and importance ofnature in mountains-and-waters paintings. That is, the actual effects painters achievein painting under the direction of natural aesthetics. Chapter Three expounds thesignificance of mountains-and-waters painting and the connection mountains andwaters have with the mood of an art work. The mood of an art work is an importantpart of Chinese art theory, a significant category of aesthetics and the utmost aim ofChinese mountains-and-waters painting. This Chapter expounds the close relationbetween mountains and waters and the mood of an art work from four aspects: imageof an art work, spirit of an art work, situation of an art work and skills in painting anart work.