"Taoism explains art and art explains Taoism. Art validates Taoism's identification of the fundamental principles of reality." (B. Willis). How far would you agree with this view?

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Taoism explains art and art explains Taoism. Art validates Taoism’s identification of the fundamental principles of reality.” (B Willis). How far would you agree with this view?

Derek Matthew Lam

Word Count: 2046


“Taoism explains art and art explains Taoism. Art validates Taoism’s identification of the fundamental principles of reality.” (B. Willis). How far would you agree with this view?

  Taoism is one of the most important and influential philosophies in China. It is a philosophy that is extremely hard to define, because when attempting, we are already challenged by the first sentence of the Tao-te ching “The Tao that can be spoken of is not the real way.” However, by scrutinizing Chinese art and paintings, we may catch a fleeting glimpse of Tao, the mysterious energy of the universe which is the source of life. Many of the fundamental concepts and ideas of Taoism are expressed through Chinese paintings, and by studying them, we may get a better grasp and understanding of this abstract yet beautiful philosophy.

   Taoism is the combination of a religion, philosophy and tradition that has shaped the lives of the Chinese for more than 2000 years. However, what are ‘the fundamental principles of reality’ of Taoism? To the Taoists, there is only one reality, and that is the Tao. “Tao” or “the Way” is the core of Taoism, it is a force which flows through all life and is the first cause of everything. It can be nothing, yet it can also be everything; It is something that can only be experienced but not explained. Therefore, Tao is a spiritual principle, it is one that deals with the primary nature of things, with our own inner self, with the nature of being and the being of nature, with the very roots and firmaments of what it means to be alive and what life is. Tao is spirit and life united.

  Taoists looked on art with special interests, for it seemed to them that art corresponded in many ways to the principles of Tao. Therefore it was not surprising that Taoism became the primary basis of Chinese art. 

      The main goal of a Chinese painter was to reach a level of true inspiration, a union with Tao. A painting was not a literal representation of a scene but a blending of what the artist saw and the way the artist’s mind transformed it. The most important factor was that qi, the breath of life had to appear in all forms. This breath of life could be found in nature, where Taoists believed contained the way to spiritual harmony.  Nature was always at the very heart of Chinese painting and nearly its sole preoccupation. Besides this, minimalism, wu-wei, and other ethnical ideas were also moral lessons drawn from Nature- the standard for Heaven and Earth as well for man. Thus it was not surprising that landscape paintings were viewed as the most important genre of Chinese painting, with the natural components (mountains, rivers, trees, etc.) given more emphasis and importance than the non-natural components (human beings, houses, boats, etc.)

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   The Chinese were able to see through the mystery and meaning of their landscapes through practicing the principles of Taoism. They were able to see a quality of self-existence and self-sufficiency, which was above any intellectual conception of it. This quality’s appearance in art came from the artist’s individual perception of it. It was spoken of in terms of unity and essentiality, as well as by spirit, describing its feeling as the ‘great emptiness’ which was the Tao, as the ‘hidden idea’ of a natural scene of form. From this hint of spirit as somehow present in the forms of nature ...

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