Landscape Of The Soul Summary
by Sanatan Ramnath
1. This concept is called ‘Shanshui’ which means ‘mountain water’. When they are used together, they make the word ‘landscape’.
1.1. YANG-POSITIVE ASPECT OF UNIVERSAL ENERGY. MOUNTAIN IS YANG. YANG CAN ALSO BE COMPARED TO MASCULINE ASPECT OF UNIVERSAL ENERGY.
1.2. YIN-FEMALE ASPECT OF UNIVERSAL ENERGY. YIN IS THAT FLUID, MOIST, COOL AND HORIZONTALLY RESTING ON EARTH.
1.3. THESE 2 REPRESENT THE FUNDAMENTAL NOTATION OF DAOISM.
2. the writer contrasts two forms of art - Chinese and European art using two different stories.
2.1. In the first story in china during the eighth century, Tang emperor Xuanzong commissioned a painter Wu Daozi to decorate the wall in the palace. Upon seeing the wall painting, the Emperor started noticing the outer appearance of the painting but the painter drew his attention to a cave at the foot of the mountain. The painter told the Emperor that he would take him inside. The painter entered the cave and the entrance closed behind him. As soon as the painter clapped his hand, the painting on the wall was gone and so was the painter.
2.1.1. In another story, a painter wouldn’t draw an eye of a dragon as he feared that the dragon would fly out of the painting. In another story to represent a European art form, a master Blacksmith falls in love with a painter’s daughter. The father didn’t approve of him because of his profession. The blacksmith sneaked into his painting studio and painted a fly on the painter’s latest panel. The fly seemed so real that the painter tried to hit it first before realizing it was in the painting. The painter accepted him as a trainee in his studio. The blacksmith married the painter’s daughter and later became one of the famous painters of his time