In order to interpret the spirit in K1-1 and K1-4, I put myself in the position of the painter of the original works, and made soliloquy such as in the following:

I made the windowpane of my studio by myself and used translucent paper to cover it, and I called my studio a Motif-Simplifier. For, being a devout Taoist monk in spirit who had every duty in the advocacy of living a simple, natural life, i was proud of the functioning of it. Having lit a lamp, its oil slightly fragrant mingled with the fragrance of the Chinese ink I had made for the art, I was in a mood half pious and half pensive, pacing up and down the studio ....

I did not know when there appeared on the paper a print-like of a branch of flowers in full blossom, standing distinctively out of the rhythmical pane and setting at the same time the rhythmicity as its background. Looking out of the window, I saw the moon hanging high, and the moonlight that made the whole scene, inside out, a world ethereal. I was absorbed, completely, then a bird outside passing through leaving behind a swift trance. "Should I then have an enlightened heart," I said to myself, musing, and made the two pieces.

K1-1

K1-4

"When a man is sitting in a boat, the light of the lake and the color of the hills, the temples, clouds, haze, bamboos, trees on the banks, as well as the woodcutters, shepherd boys, drunken old men and promenading ladies, will all be gathered within the framework of the the fan and forms a piece of natural painting. Moreover, it is a living and moving picture, changing all the time, not only when the boat is moving, giving us a new sight with every movement of the oar and a new view with every punting of the pole, but even when the boat is lying at anchor, when the wind moves and the water ripples, changing its form at every moment. Thus we are able to enjoy hundreds and thousands of beautiful paintings of hills and water in a day by means of this fan-shaped window...

" 'Thus when one sits and looks at it, the window is no more a window but a piece of painting, and the hill is no longer the hill behind the house, but a hill in the painting. I could not help laughing out loud, and my wife and my children, hearing my laughter, came to see it and joined in laughing at what I had been laughing at. This is the origin of the "unintentional painting," and the "landscape window." ' "

LYT

B2-3

B2-4

A scroll of black bamboo - Spirit of intelligentsia in 1850s

Actual size in inch: 5.5 (w), 10 (h), 0.6 (d max)

Interpretation of B1-1:

You may wonder why the bamboo is called black bamboo, and the Ink Men... Read it.

A scroll of bamboo in drizzle in south China - Spirit of intelligentsia in 1850s

Actual size in inch: 5.5 (w), 10 (h), 0.6 (d max)

Interpretation of B1-2:

Dancing with the drizzling.. Read it

Only those who take leisurely what the people of the world are busy about can be busy about what the people of the world take leisurely.

CHANG CH'AO

Nature is itself always a sanatorium. If it can cure nothing else, it can cure man of megalomania. Man has to be "put in his place," and he is always put in his place against nature's background. That is why Chinese paintings always paint human figures so small in a landscape. In a Chinese landscape called "Looking at a Mountain After Snow," it is very difficult to find the human figure supposed to be looking at the mountain after snow. After a careful search, he will be discovered perching beneath a pine tree - his squatting body about an inch high in a painting fifteen high, and done in no more than a few rapid strokes. There is another Sung painting of four scholarly figures wandering in an autumn forest and raising their heads to look at the intertwining branches of majestic trees above them. It does one good to feel terribly small at times.... That is why a mountain trip is supposed by the Chinese to have a cathartic effect, cleansing one's breast of a lot of foolish ambitions and unnecessary worries.

Lin Yutang

Qi Baishi, simplified Chinese: Æë°×ʯ, traditional Chinese: ýR°×ʯ, was a carpenter before he started for Chinese painting. He was also good at seal carving and called himself "the fortune of three hundred stone seals". Part of the reason is, I guess, because of his given name °×ʯ which literally means "white stone", refering to "rock".

Indeed, his works have fairly demonstrated the foundation of Chinese culture, and I've never seen anybody else whose Chinese root is more intense and deeper and broader than his, and his demonstration is unbelievably positive.

The wikipedia about him, which is perhaps written by a sinologist in authority, comments that, "He is perhaps the most noted contemporary Chinese painter for the whimsical, often playful style of his watercolor works." I would like to question on the accuracy of the criticism: Needless to say the whimsicality as well as the playfulness - better to understand them as terms neutral, for otherwise one would argue, quite reasonably, that that's of enjoying the life in line with the natural world and to some certain degree it is - are part of the feature of the culture. Yet, if it were largely the work of whims it would not have shown in it so much refinement that is most naturally done and with least hesitation... And I believe that there is rather a great simplicity in his works that have showcased the beautiful aspect of the Chinese culture.

Reference: the wikipedia documentation of Qi Baishi: click here

A scroll of rustlings in courtyard - Spirit of the intelligentsia in 1850s

Actual Size in inch: 5.5 (w), 10 (h), 0.6 (d in max)

the "stupid" stones... read it

A scroll of peace - Spirit of the intelligentsia in 1850s

Actual size in inch: 6 (w), 10 (h), 0.6 (d in max)

a peace maker... read it