Wangjo-shui (Yüan): Two Pheasants: 296
252. Hsia Kuei (Sung): Scholar by a Waterfall: 297
253. Chang Ta-ch'ien (Republic): By a Waterfall: 297
254. Shih T'ao (Ch'ing): Resting Woodcutters by a Waterfall: 297
255. Fan K'uan (Sung): Landscape: 298
256. Kao K'o-kung (Yüan): Landscape: 299
257. Lin Feng-mien (Republic): Landscape: 299
258. Chü Jan (Five Dynasties): Winter Landscape: 300
259. Yen Hui (Yüan): Winter Landscape: 301
260. Kao Jan-hui (Yüan): Winter Landscape: 301
261. Ni Tsan (Yüan): Pavilion by a River: 302
262. Pa-ta Shan-jen (Ch'ing): Pavilion by a River: 302
263. Ma Yüan (Sung): Landscape: 303
264. Hsü Lin (Ming): Landscape: 303
265. Wang Chi-fan (Ch'ing): Bamboo by the Wei-ch'üan: 304
266. Yün Nan-tien (Ch'ing): Landscape: 305
267. Kung K'ai (Sung): Landscape in the Style of Mi Fei: 305
268. Kung Hsien (Ch'ing): Trees in Winter: 306
269. Kao Ch'i-p'ei (Ch'ing): Conversation on the Bridge: 306
270. Wang To (Ming): Group of Trees: 306
271. Pa-ta Shan-jen (Ch'ing): Landscape: 307
272. Shih T'ao (Ch'ing): Landscape: 307
273. Ch'i Pai-shih (Republic): Landscape: 308
274. Chao Meng-fu (Yüan): Landscape: 308
275. Huang Shen (Ch'ing): Landscape: 308
276. Procession of the Kuanyin, from a Fa Hai Ssu fresco (Ming?): 309
277. Chiang Chao-ho (Republic): Nude: 309
278. Huang Shen (Ch'ing): Tea Drinker: 310
279. Yeh Chien-yu (Republic): Afternoon Tea: 310
280. Yen Hui (Yüan): The Adept Liu Hai: 311
281. Artist Unknown (Northern Sung): Hsüan Tsang Returning to China: 311
282. Yeh Chien-yü (Republic): Girl from West China: 311
283. Huang Kung-wang (Yüan): Landscape: 312
284. Wang Yüan-ch'i (Ch'ing): Landscape: 312
THIS BOOK is really the work of many minds. Its inception goes back to the year 1944, when my friendship with the Peking painter P'u Ch'uan began, and with it the slow but steady growth of this study. It would never have come into being at all without P'u Ch'üan's constancy in devoting his time, his artistic mastery, and his great gift as a teacher to the undertaking. Many artists, scholars, and art lovers in Peking and Tokyo, in Munich and Rome have each, at one time or another, contributed something—a word, a sentence, some small but significant nuance—to its finishing.
Finished and yet unfinished: for I am sure no one is more conscious of the study's failings than I myself. But if these failings are less numerous and less obvious than they were in the first draft, it is because of the suggestions and advice so kindly offered by Professor Herbert Franke, of Munich University, and Mrs. Elise Grilli, of Tokyo, who have patiently read the manuscript; by Professor Peter Olbricht, of Bonn University, and Professor Walter Fuchs, of Cologne University, who have contributed valuable corrections of fact.
My original German manuscript was translated by Helga and James Herbert, in collaboration with myself. The English version then went to the publisher's, where it was edited by Meredith Weatherby, who improved it with excellent clarifications and rearrangements of parts. This process, again carried out in close collaboration with me, has resulted in the substantially rewritten form presented here.
For permission to use illustrations and quotations I wish to express My thanks to Methuen and Co., Ltd., London; Macmillan and Co., London; Dietrich Reimer, Berlin; Mr. T. Tafel, Stuttgart; the Department of Archaeology, Government of India (for permission to reproduce the picture from Sir Aurel Stein's Ancient Khotan); Mr. Chiang Yee, of Riverdale, New York; the Oxford University Press; Ōtsuka Kōgeisha, Tokyo; Tōkyō Bijutsu Taikan, Tokyo; Shina Meiga, Tokyo; Geien Shinchō, Tokyo; T. Hasegawa and Son, Tokyo; National Museum, Tokyo; Nezu Museum, Tokyo; Sumitomo Collection, Ōiso; Mr. J. -P. Dubosc, Paris; and Mr. Sōfū Teshi-gahara, of Tokyo.
ORIENTAL ART is less familiar to us than we assume, for we are always comparing it with our own, never making any serious attempt to understand it on its genuine terms. As a matter of fact, we like it to remain obscure so we can regard it as some exotic bloom whose very strangeness excites us. The Western mind often finds Japanese and Chinese psychology quite incomprehensible, and it is almost as if we were trying to prove their art equally incomprehensible. Thus we are inclined to fall back on the artistic conventions and aesthetic traditions of our own hemisphere.
Being only too happy to accept Oriental art, and particularly painting, as finally inexplicable, we agree to call its works beautiful or impressive or masterly merely because they seem so by our Western standards. In consequence we necessarily miss certain essentials of this art.
There is a danger both of not understanding and of misunderstanding. I believe, however, that a key does exist which not only opens the door to this strange world, but also charts a way through it.
Admittedly, attempts have been made, often and successfully, to promote an understanding of Oriental art, but only dealing with its more superficial characteristics. Using Japanese and Chinese sources, the historical evolution of Oriental art has been investigated and described. Its aesthetics have been analyzed through studies of the works of Oriental painters and scholars, and co-ordinated into a system. Efforts have been made to discover the common traits within Japanese and Chinese culture and philosophy on the one hand and their artistic expression on the other. Finally, certain studies have been devoted to the techniques of Oriental art, though these were not very thorough. But all this explorative work which is accessible to us in the West still remains incomplete. Besides, most of it was intended for those who already had some previous knowledge on the subject. It ignored the wider circle of educated laymen who wish to understand Oriental art not merely from the base of their familiarity with its Western counterpart, but also as an expression of Oriental thought.
Since the major works of Oriental art are known in the West almost exclusively through reproductions which obscure practically all the essential features of that art, we have very little real acquaintance with it. The educated man who is impulsively attracted by these works might become disillusioned if presented with yet another book only repeating, with slightly different emphases, what has already been said before. He may not feel that he is getting any closer to the understanding he is seeking.
