J1-1: Starlings on the rock

Actual Size:

5 inches (w), 12.5 inches (h), 0.6 inches (d in max)

Interpretation of J1-1:

Painting, calligraphy and poetry in China are "triplets", for a poem in China is supposed to be like an expression of a lyrical flow of romance that draws up something of a scene; a painting, a work of brushstrokes, which are not scattered in random without purpose but constituting something poetic in details. So the Chinese saying, 'there is a poem embedded in a painting, the same as there is a painting in a poem.' As to the calligraphy, Wang Hsichih (321-379), China's "prince of calligraphists," spoke about the art of it in terms of imagery from nature:

Every horizontal stroke is like a mass of clouds in battle formation, every hook like a bent bow of the great strength, every dot like a falling rock from a high peak, every turning of the stroke like a brass hook, every drawn-out line like a dry vine of great old age, and every swift and free stroke like a runner on his start. (translated by Lin Yutang)

Therefore, an interpretation of the one fits also the other two, in generally speaking.

In the sanctification journey as in the ascent of the art, it leads us to a consideration of "atmosphere," otherwise called "rhythmic vitality" which has been the highest ideal of Chinese painting for the last fourteen hundred years. For the Chinese brush, which is more subtle and more responsive than the pen, makes the conveyance of every type of rhythmic movement possible.

Now, let's look at J1-1, the sketches of the segments and the seemingly haphazard arrangement of them. Of what avail is it to paint the slightly scattered imaginary leaves, unless it guides us to think that it sweeps away the infertility of the wild and matches up to the conquerors as the starlings standing on the top. The mountain demonstrates not only its wilderness, but leaves room by itself for the imagination of a battlefield.