User:Chen Junyu/Graduation Project Seminar/ project proposal/Proposal6

Question

By which way, I could approach the core in my work that Chinese painting always chases for--resonance of the spirit,movement of life.

Context

Here is a story about the great Chinese painter Zhang Sengyou (Chinese: 张僧繇). Quoted from Fritz Van Briessen's The Way of the Brush, original version by Zhang Yanyuan of Tang Dynasty:

Zhang one day decided to paint a dragon on the wall of his house. He guided his brush with full confidence, and after a while the dragon was finished except for its eyes. Suddenly the master's courage failed him. He simply did not dare to paint those eyes. When, many months later, he at last felt brave enough, he groped for his brush and with swift strokes dashed in eye and pupil. Within an instant the dragon broke into cloud roaring and flew away, leaving a trace of fire and smoke.

There are many this kind of stories about Chinese Painting, and they usually have one common trait. Quoted the comments from The Way of the Brush : The assumption of an extraordinary close relationship between painting and magic, and of the resulting conclusion that a great painter is also a great magician—the greater the painter the more powerful his magical capacities. It seems that a demonstration of magic was proof of a painter’s genius.

If we trace back to the very first painting in the world --