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A1-2: Under the moonlight
【 Explanatory Story 】
There is in china a tremendous storage of romantic
stories, most of them, if not all, are in subject expressions of shades of
the moonlight, for this moonlight, identified Mother Nature's nurturing,
nurtures them all; and, the moon is therefore their final destination. In
the precepts things most ordinary would be uttered as yet most
extraordinary, so long as they are under the light; that is to say, it veils
them onto the mystique of their being transfigured into a world of
tranquility, meanwhile, it touches the deeps of one's sentiments and sets
free his imagination. Like a free bird imaginable the imagination flies, so
is the case of the A1-2.
It's outside one farmhouse corner, somewhere in
countryside, but right under the moonlight. It may have been viewed as an
abandoned corner, but, to a well-cultivated eye as to our painter's, it was
a beautiful scene, ethereal and revealing, so that he jubilantly waved his
brush for art on account of it, and making in his impressionism
brushstrokes like this, lyric and in serenity; and in his transmogrification
of it, the twig of orchid blossom seemed just like a floral crown, and the
vertical lines a symbol of an elegant figure of a bride, and the leaves the
very bridegroom bowing to the crowned queen his bride for her beauty.
Do not argue with the size of the leaf but try to
enjoy it, for it is of a vivid imagination of his: transfiguration of the
bridegroom who is but the artist himself. As for the accuracy of the size,
Lin Yutang remarked:
We must remember that the
Chinese painters did not want mere accuracy of detail. Su Tungp'o (1036-1101) said, "If one criticize painting by its verisimilitude, one's
understanding is similar to that of a child." But taking away mere
verisimilitude, what has the painter to offer us? what
after all is the purpose of painting? The answer is that the artist should
convey to us the spirit of the scenery and evoke in us a sympathetic mood
in response. That is the highest object and ideal of Chinese art. We
remember how the artist makes periodic visits to the high mountains to
refresh his spirit in the mountain air and clean his breast of the
accumulated dust of urban thoughts and suburban passions. He climbs to the
highest peaks to obtain a moral and spiritual elevation, and he braves the
winds and soaks himself in rain to listen to the thundering waves of the
sea. He sits among piles of wild rocks and brush-wood and hides himself in
bamboo groves for days in order to absorb the spirit of the things as it is
instilled into his soul, and recreate for us a picture, "surcharged
with moods and feelings, ever-changing and wonderful like nature
itself.
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