Wang Wei (王维) as a painter

Wang Wei ( 王维) is a famous multi-talented artist in Tang Dynasty. Another famous artist in the later Song Dynasty Su-shi (苏轼) 's comment on Wang Wei's poems and paintings " in reading Wang's poems one sees pictures, upon seeing Wang's pictures one senses poetry." (“味摩诘之诗，诗中有画，观摩诘之画，画中有诗” ) is very famous as well - almost all writings about Wang Wei start with this Shu-shi's comment. Because of the frequent encounters of this comment people tend to think that this is true like the effect of frequent encounters of Coca-Cola and McDonald's CMs. We must check whether this is true or not. One of the best ways is to check with the Wang Wei's original works - poems and paintings. "in reading Wang's poems one sees pictures" is highly likely true and most poem readers may admit this. How about his paintings? Unfortunately his original paintings reportedly do not exist. But fortunately his original writings on Chinese Landscape paintings exist - 《山水论》 or Theory on Landscape Paintings and 《山水决》 or Key to successful Landscape Paintings. But unfortunately again I cannot find the English versions of these.

Generally his writings on Chinese Landscape paintings are mostly about techniques, probably new techniques at his time so he called them Key (or Secret) to successful Landscape Paintings.

Major points are as follows (limited as my understanding of the Chinese original is limited):

1) Proportion of the sizes of the objects or Scaling

To reflect the actual size differences
For instance
Mountains - several hundred meters
Trees - several ten meters
Horses - several meters
Human beings - 1-2 meters

2) Size difference at different distances - a kind of perspective, things far away seem small and things near seem large.

For instance
Trees far away, leaves cannot be seen.
Mountains far away, rocks and stones cannot be seen.
Rivers far away, waves cannot be seen.
Trees far away are low while tress near are high.

3) 3D expression

For instance
Rocks must show the 3 faces.

4) Atmospheric features

a) Weather features
Different weathers show different features. Things look different in windy and raining weathers.

b) Morning and evening features
Different times in a day show different features.

c) Seasonal features
Scenes in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter show each season's typical features.

For instance
Spring - fog, Winter - snow

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Theory on Landscape Paintings - Original Chinese 《山水论》

Key (or Secret) to successful Landscape Paintings - Original Chinese 《山水决》　 　　


Refer to: http://baike.baidu.com/view/1582453.htm


AAG

Gong-bi (工筆) and Xie-yi (写意)

Chinese paintings are often divided roughly into two styles - Gong-bi (工笔) or Meticulous Style and Xie-yi (写意) or Freehand Style. The English words "Meticulous" and "Freehand" translate only a part of the original meanings in Chinese of Gong-bi (工笔) Style and Xie-yi (写意) Style (historically very old like other cultural things as always). More appropriate words shall replace these English words in future when Chinese paintings become more popular worldwide.

I find more quietness or stillness in Gong-bi (工笔) paintings while I find more movement or activeness in Xie-yi (写意) paintings. I need to become a bit active to see Gong-bi (工笔) paintings to appreciate quietness or stillness while I can appreciate movement or activeness even when if I am passive when I see Xie-yi (写意) paintings.

Still Life painting (nature morte in French is more like dead life in English) is one style in Western paintings. Most people, either Western or Oriental, find stillness or quietness in Still Life paintings. This is partly because the objects depicted are usually dead living things or non-living things which do not move by themselves. And usually there is no painter's intention involved to make a still life painting active. Furthermore paintings are 2D expression, in which time and movement are excluded.


AAG

Inner Beauty （内在美） and Hidden Beauty

Inner beauty（内在美）contrasts to outer beauty and usually describing a person and quite often describing a woman. Inner beauty is inside, invisible, spiritual or characteristic beauty found but not visually found in a person while outer beauty is outside, visible, physical beauty visually found in a person.

Paintings may have some inner beauty（内在美) like spiritual beauty but differ from person's inner beauty as paintings are visual arts. You can find spiritual beauty or some kind of spiritually or psychologically pleasant feeling in paintings but through its static appearance - how they look to you. You find inner beauty in a person through her/his way of talking, movement, reaction, etc not related with the appearance.

Meanwhile paintings have hidden beauty as well. People see painting in many different ways, quite a freedom. Some people see more beauty in the color and shade (some Chinese paintings are black/gray on white paper) in a painting while some other people see more beauty in the composition in the same painting. Compositional beauty is relatively hidden as compared with color and shade beauty. Lines - straight and curves - in a painting bring you some feeling like strength, force, direction, movement, gradual and sudden changes, deepness - 3D, smoothness, elegance. Beauty of lines is somewhat hidden, too. So experienced viewers tend to find beauty in composition and lines as well as or more than in colors and shades. Combination of these factors in a painting brings you a total impression, which varies very much with viewers. Total impression (not just a addition of the factors, or can be said a very complex multiplication of these factors) pleases you very much or even elevates you spiritually. So paintings, especially good paintings, have a lot of hidden beauty.


AAG

Methematical Beauty and Hidden Beauty

Mathematicians find beauty in the following formula (Euler formula). Or they say that this is a very elegant formula.

e^ix=cosx+i sinx

Where is beauty and elegance in it? It is not easy for many people to see beauty and elegance in it.
Why not? This is because ordinary people - those who have have little interest in math - do not have enough background math knowledge. Without accumulation of the related math knowledge it is impossible to find profound meanings which this simple formula contains. The degree of beauty people find in it depends on their background math knowledge. If you know more about the related math you find more beauty in this simple formula. And it usually takes a long time to accumulate the necessary knowledge.

It is similar to Enlightenment in Zen（禅）. It takes time to attain a higher level Enlightenment or Understanding (悟） and usually you must have a lot of experiences, observations and thinking by yourself.

Paintings represent beauty. It is easy to see some beauty in beautiful things. But to find beauty existing but hidden in seemingly ordinary and not so beautiful things is difficult, takes time and requires some knowledge, experiences, observations and thinking. Paintings made by the really great artists reveal this hidden beauty made in their own creative ways. These great paintings are sometimes very simple and somewhat abstract but people could find profound beauty and meanings in them.

Finding this kind of hidden beauty is a pleasure, perhaps a similar pleasure for math people when they find beauty in a simple but having deep meaning formula and for Zen people when they find Enlightenment (悟）.

AAG