The Chinese Theory of Art: Shi Tao (Part I)
Shi Tao (1642-1707) was a self-regarded Buddhist monk, accomplished calligrapher and landscape painter during the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). He was also known as Zhu Ruoji.
Chinese art at the beginning of the dynasty and life of Shi Tao had degenerated into the concentration on imitating the ancients before them. Paintings were exact copies of previous artists, including technique and the use of color, light and shadows. These artists then signed their paintings with, “Copy of Xxx, made by Yyy“, or “In the manner of Xxx, made by Yyy.” The artists had access to a large body of traditional styles, composition patterns, strokes, and uses of color. The trouble was that when all the formulas for painting were known, no room was left for originality.
Shi Tao and his close circle of fellow painters and monks were the revolutionaries to change all this. Instead serving in the imperial government, they took up lives of a recluse to escape the politics.
Following is a summary and commentary on an essay written by Shi Tao around the year 1660 AD. At the time it was original, and uncharacteristically delved into the psychological processes of artistic creation. According to Lin Yutang, this essay is the most profound ever written, both in content and style that addressed Chinese art.
Some of the important words and concepts used by Shi Tao:
Fa (法): “method” of drawing
Shi (识): “recognition, the gift of insight”
Hua (化): “flexibility from true understanding”
Shou (授): “a natural born gift, inspired by”
Chi (质): “substance”
Shi (饰): “decoration
Ren (任): “function, the logical place of phenomena in nature”
Li (理): “the inner law of existence, of things”
1. The One-Stroke Method:
When the primeval chaos was differentiated and put into form, method was born. It was born of one-stroke. From here all the phenomenon emerged. The establishment of this one-stroke method creates a method out of no-method, and a method which covers all methods.
All painting comes from the understanding mind. When the artist grasps this method, the inner law and outward gestures of hills, streams, people, plants and animals, and all bodies of water are manifest. The countless number of strokes and ink all begin and end here. A man should be able to show the universe in one stroke.
If the wrist is not fully responsive, then the picture is not good. Life and luster is given by circular movements and bends, and by stopping movement give the picture spaciousness. These move like the gravitation of water, or the rising of flame, naturally and without the straining for effect. In this way one penetrates all inner nature of things. With a casual stroke, all life, vegetation, and human behavior take their form and gesture. People do not see how such a painting is created, but the act of drawing never departs from the understanding mind.
Commentary”
This One-Stroke method is foundational to Shi Tao’s philosophy and perspectives of art. For Shi Tao and the others in this section, art implied both painting and calligraphy. His writings of this subject have been separated into a total of seven parts, or installments.
One-stroke appears to me much like what Laozi describes in the Dao De Jing Chapter 40. See this website for discussion under the category “Other Asian Philosophies”. “Reverting to its opposite is the how the Dao moves. Being delicate and subtle is how the Dao is used. Under heaven, down here on earth, the ten thousand things emerge from Being-Within-Form”. And in particular, the last line: “Being-Within-Form” (you,有) emerges from (wu, 无) which forms the basis for the one-stroke.
The Chinese Theory of Art: by Lin Yutang G.P. Putnam’s Sons New York 1967