Ink Paintings

The artistic dimension, the human dimension and the natural dimension as a whole system, are the focus of ecological aesthetics. Mountain and Water paintings are useful for alleviating the tensions and contradictions of contemporary people towards nature, society, and other people. Ecological aesthetics observes both the natural and spiritual realm.The appreciation of Mountain and Water paintings makes people forget their worries, cleanses their hearts, makes the viewers spiritually satisfied, and finally reaches the highest state of the unity of nature and man.

Harmony is the key concept in this vision of the world, not just the harmony between man and the natural environment, but also harmony in the theoretical thinking that leads to a philosophical syncretism. Different approaches can cooperate in order to create a complex system to answer the common questions about the cosmos, how to relate with it and to know our place in it, in order to reach a higher level of existence that crosses the barrier of the physical and material world.

With a holistic vision of the cosmos, the man has to learn how to relate with the natural environment, without exploiting it or annihilating the human nature, acting with righteousness (yi 义 of the Confucian thinking) in order to improve the environment, but at the same time we need to understand the possible repercussion of our actions and follow the natural order of things (wuwei 无为 of the Daoism thinking). This is possible just when the man treats nature as his own kind, with empathy, in harmony.

Like Zong Baihua 宗白华 (1897-1986) said: “the wisdom of the East is not to fly above nature and conquer it, but to dive deep into the core of nature and experience it, connect with it, and nurture it as universal love.”