Artistic and Philosophical Foundations: Yijing and Rasa
Yijing (意境) (Chinese): the mood, atmosphere and concentration necessary to create a work of art.
Rasa (Sanskrit): To capture the essence, the spirit of something in order to evoke a specific mood or emotion in the viewer–reader–listener.
The ancient Chinese poets spent a considerable amount of time and energy exploring, pursuing, creating, and then expressing what it took to achieve what is called yijing. As one reads more and more ancient Chinese poetry, this aspect becomes more and more noticeable.
My wife and I love to travel to the ancient city of Hangzhou in China. It was a capital city during the Southern Song Dynasty. Within the city limits is the magical body of water and surrounding areas known as West Lake. There are many copies and imitations of this lake in China and other countries, but there is only one original. Kind of like what the city of Venice is for the Western world. West Lake is now a Chinese National Park, but in former times, and for centuries, it was known as a place of physical beauty and as a place for yijing.
Two of the most famous Chinese poets were senior government officials here, Bai Juyi and Su Dongpo. Each man has a causeway, or large embankment, named after him. These two embankments dominate the lake’s features. They divide the lake into sections. They are wide enough to have a small and narrow road for bicycles and pedestrians. Each is lined with willow trees and blooming peach trees in the springtime. The embankments, along with islands and the shoreline, have created the inspiration for poems, essays, plays and music for a thousand years or more. Trees, flowers, tea houses, museums, and walkways circumscribe the lake. There are also adjacent temples, gardens, parks as well as the dominant Leifang Pagoda at the southern end. Ten spots, or views, have been identified and named by the Chinese as being particularly conducive to the yijing necessary for artistic creation.
The Spanish city of Segovia is a short train ride into a higher elevations from the capital city of Madrid. The Segovia area is a place that is saturated with yijing. My favorite Spanish-language poet. Antonio Machado, lived here for several years, between the years 1919-1931. The house that he lived in has been preserved and converted into a national historical site. In the central town square stands a life sized bronze stature of Machado with a few lines of his poetry:
“Verdad que el aqua del Eresma
Nos va lamiendo el corazon…
Torres de Segovia ciguenas al sol.”
It is true that the waters of the Eresma
Is licking our hearts…
The towers of Segovia are capstans for the sun!
Down the hillside from the Castle Alzacar lies the “Jardin de Poetas”, the Garden of Poets. It is a beautiful spot overlooking the Eresma River and the hillsides in the distance. There are of course trees, flowers, and the sounds of running water close by. Another place created and dedicated to yijing.
Although he does not explicitly talk about, or discuss yijing, many of the poems of Meng Haoran are significantly infused with it.
…”Sit on a comfortable boulder fishing
Clear water increases the idleness of an unoccupied mind.”
Wan Mountain: Deep River Pools: Meng Haoran
“Sunset on the mountain mists make a beautiful glow
Flying birds come back together.
Within this natural scene lies the artistic mood necessary for creation, and the real meaning of the Dao
When approaching the end of discrimination and analysis,
words are forgotten.”
Drinking Wine No.5: Tao Yuanming