Svabhāv・Prakrit Beyond Things — Blossom Trees in the Stone

Author: Shen Bo-Cheng

Interpreter: Mel Chang

Preface

“…one pointed at a flowering tree in rock and asked: ‘If nothing exists beyond your heart, when the flowers of this tree bloom and wither in the stone itself, how would my heart know if they exist?’ The philosopher said: ‘when you are not looking at the flowers, they are not existent. When you come and look at the flowers, the colors of these flowers suddenly become brighter. This is when you know the flowers are not beyond your heart.’” — Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings by Wang Yangming (1472–1529).

Different from the obsession with “portrait” and “human body” and the scientific observation and analysis of “nature” in Western art, “landscape” and “nature” have always been the embodiment of an artist’ own spiritual mind in Eastern art. Simply put, from the perspective of Eastern philosophy, “svabhāva[1] (own-being)” and “prakriti[2] (nature)” have always been two realities that reflect each other. A person’s spiritual mind and nature’s material and external characteristics share commonalities and resonate with each other. Thus, the illustration of landscape, trees and rocks, flowers and birds, and wind and clouds demonstrate the multiple facets of an artist’s true self.

Yongming Yanshou once said: “When a heart is open, it is open to many things.” While “a person’s heart is reflected on material things,” an artist’s works are the material things transformed from the heart and reflecting the heart. “A person’s heart can reflect material things” — the idea of “a flowering tree in rock” can be used in art appreciation. A flowering tree in rock can be seen as a scenario where an artist gains his/her inspiration, or a change in the viewer’s mindset when looking at an art piece. When an artist’s true self is met with the original state of the external world, that hidden flowering tree will blossom and magnificently appear in front of the viewer. It was precisely a viewer’s encounter with an art work that made Zeami Motokiyo say: “Sending this flower from my heart to yours through art is like detecting the wind through flowers,” [3]and this utterance has given a clearer meaning to the aesthetic meaning of artistic creation.

From one’s true self to the original state of things, nature has always been the center of art themes and aesthetic thinking in Eastern art. As a spiritual symbol for art pieces, nature brings out the inner flowering tree in the viewer’s heart. The art pieces of the exhibition Blossom Trees in the Stone are reflections of the artist’s true self when faced with the “original state” of things. The art works are created through the artists’ emulation of people in the past and creativity, and the viewer is able to look at the world where he/she lives, sees, and feels from a new angle.

1. Leisure & Trivial Things

Notes on Trivial Things was written by Wen Zhen Heng, a writer from the late Ming Dynasty, and the work detailedly portrays ways of appreciating all sorts of useless things and the fun that comes along with such activities. Wen writes about the fun brought by having these trivial things in great detail. Notes on Trivial Things denotes a non-result-oriented lifestyle and aesthetics that break the mold of a result-oriented society. “Trivial things” have their own inner beauty and particular charm.

In the exhibition, artist Lee Jo-Mei’s installations and paintings, and Hsu Jui-Chien’s sculptures resonate with the beauty of redundancy, useless things, and useless places. Among Lee’s works, betel nuts, bananas, sugar cane, and coconut trees manifest their own charm in completely different forms. Meanwhile, Hsu presents abstractly composed iron racks and spectacles, as well as seemingly randomly twisted and cut-off iron pieces. These objects meant only for appreciation exude their own charm in their triviality. Thus, their seemingly trifling or meaningless existence significantly highlights their original state. “Trivial things” might be useless but their charm is prevalent.

2. Desolation and Embarrassment

“…scenery with extreme serenity might just be desolation in reality…a calm and elegant state of living might just be embarrassing impoverishment…” In Quiet Dream Shadows, Zhang Chao writes about his unique views on “景 (scenery)” and “境 (state).” The beauty derives from desolation and the refined state of living derives from embarrassing impoverishment add more depth to Eastern aesthetics, which puts emphasis on transforming “scenery” into “state.” It is worth noting is that Zhang Chao’s highly contrastive description of aesthetics is not irony but deep observation of the spiritual aspect of desolation. At the same time, the child-like and crude qualities depicted in such aesthetic views disregard delicate techniques, allowing art itself to manifest the artist’s state of mind honestly. When looking at the works by Liao I-Chin and Lin Quanju through Zhang Chao’s eyes, the viewer might be able to have different interpretations of the charm and aesthetics of “serenity” and “calmness and elegance.” Liao I-Chin’s random and casual brush strokes emanate a vague and poetic atmosphere that is shapeless, attaching a more concrete meaning to Zhang Chao’s notion of “desolation and extreme serenity.”

Meanwhile, Lin Quanju’s landscape paintings with modest and even rough brush strokes accentuate Zhang Chao’s idea of “a crude and child-like carefree state.” The works of these two artists do not center on refined appearance but unrestrained presentation of the artists’ spirit. Juxtaposing the rough brush strokes and simple colors with Zhang Chao’s description of desolation and embarrassment, the viewer will eventually see the beauty of that flowering tree in rock that is “extremely serene” and “calm and elegant.”

3. Quaint, Natural, Lean, and Artful

Mi Fu bowed to a “flawed stone” because it was peculiar, mysterious, porous, and wrinkled. That highly deformed “flawed stone” showed its character and beauty. When comparing with the beauty of the stone’s deformed shape, Wu Mengzhang’s stone sculptures allow the viewer to understand why the artist likes to work with fragmentary materials. This observation of imperfection means that the artist can incorporate the concept of “quaint, natural, lean, and artful” in the “stone appreciation” tradition in the Eastern world. Wu’s stone sculptures combine craftsmanship and quaintness and merge natural and lean. In his art, Wu melds himself into nature.

4. A List of Unnamed Flowers

“Flowers” have a cultural imagery, and this long-term imagery has been tender, reserved yet resplendent and refreshing, just like the depictions found in Huajian Ji. However, Yan I-Chang’s flowers are not gentle, magnificent, enchanting, or wonderful; they are more like the flowers in the splendid floral ink wash paintings made by Xu Wei. In Yan’s passionate brush strokes and vast composition, flowers stand out proudly. These unnamed flowers are also amiable like flying banners in the wind.

5. Deep, Copious, Changeable, and Calm

For Zhang Chao, landscape, whether it is in reality, paintings, dreams, or his heart, has different facets and characteristics that are deep, copious, changeable, and calm. The unrestrainedly shaped metal art works of

Sung Hsi-Te are presented in an upright and proud manner, resonating with Zhao’s words on landscape art and its aesthetic qualities. The landscape-themed sculptures of different shapes directly show the viewer the deep and copious characteristics of changes in nature.

Summary

“When you come and look at the flowers, the colors of these flowers suddenly become brighter. This is when you know the flowers are not beyond your heart. ” Blossom Trees in the Stone knows all this because of its focus on the heart. When the viewer sees an art work, his/her heart will be touched by the artist with the flowering tree in rock — an encounter between artistic creation and aesthetic appreciation.

[1] Svabhāv is a term in philosophy that means everything is owned and formed by itself. A thing itself determines the qualities of its existence, which is permanent and independent and does not change along with dependent origination; the exterior characteristics are called svalakṣaṇa.

[2] Prakrit is also translated into “nature.” It is a term in Ancient Indian philosophy, meaning the foundation of things. Buddhism also adopts this concept and defines it as the unchangeable qualities of things; it is regarded as a synonym of Svabhāv in Buddhism.

[3] Detecting the wind through flowers (ふうしかでん) is a book on theories of Noh dance drama by Zeami Motokiyo. It is a classic work on Japan’s aesthetic thinking. The main concept stresses that the purpose of “art” and “art performance” is to send the flower (beauty) in an artist’s heart to the viewer through art.