Daoist Implications
Yang is conceptually similar to the traditional scholars, whose landscape paintings were focused on the conception and feeling of nature rather than direct perception and representation. In View of the Tide from the 2008 series On the Quiet Water, Yang maintains the same ideals as traditional Chinese artists in his conceptual goals. The imagery directly references Zhao Fu’s Ten Thousand Li of the Yangtze River, a depiction of the Yangzte River from the Southern Song dynasty. Traditional Chinese depictions of nature were never simply representations of the external world; they were cultivated landscapes that represented the mind and heart of the artist. [1] As the ideas behind shanshuihua are a combination of religious doctrine and philosophical thought, they are not depictions of what the artist sees. They are instead an expression of the inner feelings of the artist. [2] Yang follows this tradition. His landscapes are not simply indicative of what he sees as he travels throughout the city, but instead reflect his understanding and critical view of contemporary society. He expresses his internal dialogue in his works, harkening back to the traditional Chinese landscape painter’s goal of depicting self-cultivation. Yang asserts that while he may be approaching traditional imagery with a new medium, his works still evoke the same emotions and feelings as those of the old masters. In the specific example of View of the Tide, his composite can be read as the representation of his inner perception of both Chinese society and the natural world. Throughout Chinese history, Daoists and geomancers recorded that tampering with the truth of nature would end in disaster. [4] This unspoken desire for nature preservation can be read in traditional landscape paintings. In referencing this imagery, even when not primarily setting out with the desire to raise environmental awareness, Yang reiterates shanshuihua’s call for a return to the idea of human/nature harmony.
---
[1] Sun Xiaoyan and Jing Lin, “Daoism and Chinese Landscape Painting: Implications for Education for Human-Nature Harmony,” in Transformative Eco-Education for Human and Planetary Survival, eds. Rebecca L. Oxford and Jing Lin, (Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing,Inc., 2012): 340.
[2] Chu Kiu-wai, “Constructing Ruins: New Urban Aesthetics of Chinese Art and Cinema, “ Master’s thesis, The University of Hong Kong, 2009: 22.
[3] Erica Huang, “Yang Yongliang Brings Chinese Landscape Painting into the 21st Century,” The Creator’s Project, July 26, 2012.
[4] Susan Clare Scott, “Sacred Earth: Daoism as a Preserver of Environment in Chinese Landscape Painting from the Song Through the Qing Dynasties,” East West Connection 6, 2 (2006): 80.