Chinese Painting : Shui Mo Identity

The Chinese believe that the loftiest in all colours are black and white. The most difficult to depict in all art elements are dots and lines. The black and white themselves are colours while dots and lines are used to depict space. Just like that the force of the fist comes from the body rather than the fist itself, “The impact of ink”comes from all the force generating from mans thinking and his instruments.

When an ancient Chinese artist chose natural sceneries such as plants, birds and animals as the objects in his paintings, he had been determined to remain in privity with the Nature, observing his objects in lasting silence. Then, he would wet his brushes with water and ink, and painted on the rice paper the Nature that he was conversing with. Please note that the Nature then was not a sheer object. It had been imbued with new elements - the soul and understanding of the artist. By doing so, the artist had painted such a picture - the appearance of life with the unique Chinese concept of the unison between the Nature and the man.

The Chinese painting is the only major painting in the world that is not classified according to the tools used. However, it may just be the opposite, because some people name the Chinese painting directly as the “water-ink painting” Therefore, we can only explain it this way: by naming so, it shows the extreme attention the Chinese pay to the water-ink, the aboriginal Chinese material that has been regarded as the essence of traditional visual art.

The Chinese painting is the art of ink. Ink is dark, and the nature of Chinese art is the relationship among ink, brushes and paper. The ink is yang, infiltrating into the rice paper actively, while the rice paper is yin, absorbing the ink. They form the contrast between yin and yang, dark and white. Another element between them is the brush. There are changes in the ink, rice paper and brush, their individual changes amounting to numerous changes. That is the Chinese philosophy. How can one tell all the changes within?

If we say that the Western painting is the art under the sun that can arouse peoples passion, then the traditional Chinese painting is the art under the starlight, which is a return to ones ego. Without the echoing in such feelings as joy, anger, sadness and happiness, however, it can bring about a space for introspection and the presentation of an eternal question.

Some Western scholars used to call China the region most typical of the culture of colour dark. Seen from the Chinese philosophy before the 3 BC, dark and white, which can hardly be called colours, are the richest in philosophical meaning. Between them, it seems that dark is more profound and mysterious. Why did the colour dark remind the ancient Chinese philosophers of the fundament of the universe? This might have something to do with the abstract and transcending nature of the colour itself. At the beginning of the Chinese philosophy, the priori nature of the colour dark had been understood by the philosophers. Interestingly, to the Han nationality, dark does not mean death and terror, which is different from in many Western nationalities. People in the Xia Dynasty, the first dynasty in the Chinese history, worshipped the colour dark and made it their official colour. The doors of the residences in the places which belonged to Qin Kingdom in ancient times are still painted dark today. To the Han nationality and some ethnic minorities, the dark colour is respectful and awe-inspiring, a feeling that implies the thought about and yearning for the eternity, and an admiration for the serenity, steadiness and magnanimity of the colour dark among all kinds of colours. Forming an interesting contrast, the contemporary impressionists restored mans feeling about colours in painting to the scientific natural basis after the European painting had evolved for several thousand years and declared that there was no colour of dark in the Nature. The Chinese, however, suddenly belittled colours in painting and worshipped water and ink in the Tang Dynasty during the 6 AD. Wang Wei, a famous poet and artist in the Tang Dynasty, said: “The water and ink are the most important in painting. The painters should begin with the depiction of the Nature, and make the pictures perfect with their own creative work.”Zhang Yanyuan explained in The Famous Paintings of All Dynasties that Chinese painters of more than 1000 years ago did not believe that the “five colours”the eyes saw could be “pursued”and that only the darkness of ink transcended mans senses and could reflect lights and the shadows. This is the rule of the Chinese water-ink painting. The simple and dogmatic arguments of Wang Wei and Zhang Yanyuan fit well with the cultural and knowledge structure of the Chinese literati, and pushed the water-ink painting towards the abstruse and the Zen culture. The implications of the language of ink and brushes are increasingly closer to the Chinese philosophy until finally a system of black and white painting is finally formed which is unique in the human civilization - the water-ink painting.

In fact, we had better say that the colour dark follows closest to the golden mean rather than being extreme because the mixture of various colours is close to the colour dark. This implies that the colour dark is the most comprehensive and it keeps the same distance with almost all colours, which indicates its neutralization and self-sufficiency. It takes up all light and mixes all colours.

Black and white are therefore regarded as the loftiest colours in traditional Chinese painting. Meanwhile, traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy also hold that dots and lines are the most difficult to depict in all art elements. Chinese calligraphy and painting are just the combination of the two. Black and white are colours themselves while dots and lines are adopted to depict space. This is parallel to the fact that the force of fist comes from the body rather than the fist itself. “The impact of ink”comes from the mighty force of thoughts and instruments.

It is water that has accompanied the different tones of ink. The ink and the water complement each other and introduce numerous changes. This is what the Chinese literati pursue in the “fun of ink”n water-ink painting. Comparatively speaking, the figure and colour in painting are not as important. Since the mid-Tang Dynasty, the Chinese painting has finally embarked on a road that stresses on water and ink.

But in fact, the ink itself is rich. The ancient theory for Chinese painting said that “The ink had five colours” This means that the ink is not dull with no variation. With dark and light tones, the ink can be just as rich and enduring as the five colours in riotous profusion.

To be accurate, Chinese traditional water-ink painting is the brainchild of elitism in that it stresses the expression of the soul and the distance with the reality. The traditional Chinese philosophy advocates serenity and holds that only those remain in harmony with the Nature and keep away from evil can be regarded as with noble characters. The water-ink paintings which do not seek to impress people with beautiful and dazzling colours fit well with this kind of pursuit in life.

There used to be a time when most translators interpreted “shui mo”as “ink on paper” However, some Chinese scholars today prefer to use “shui mo”directly. The translation of Shui Mo Identity implies such a cultural attempt: to emphasize a special medium that is unique to China and the Orient. “Identity”means the implied cultural meaning of the art form. There is a similar attempt implied: we should better locate the position of Chinese Shui Mo in the entire contemporary art and the contemporary art worldwide.