Sense Without Form, Sound Without Words

The technique of "leaving blank," "blank," or "filling in space with blank" is unique to Chinese painting. It refers to blank space in Chinese painting where there is no actual painting. Heavily influenced by classic Chinese philosophy, particularly Daoism, Chinese painting breathes the essence of traditional Chinese cultural heritages. The technique of "leaving blank" in Chinese painting, for instance, fits well with the Daoism concept of "Frequent Non-action and Limitless Action." The spirit of Daoism has been manifested in Chinese painting as coexistence of the virtual and the real, transformation of the virtual into the real, mutual absorption of the virtual and the real, and contrast of the virtual and the real. It has been a guiding principle for generations of Chinese painting artists. Coincidentally, this guiding principle fits well with Gestalt psychology, which developed in Germany in the 1920s. A key concept of Gestalt psychology is that the sense of whole is not the simple sum of all of its individual sensations; neither is it a separate sense which is isolated from its individual sensations. It emphasizes wholeness, unity, completeness, and contrast in aesthetic appreciation, which can be applied to the "leaving blank" technique in Chinese painting. This thesis studies the philosophical underpinnings and psychological language of the technique of "leaving blank" in Chinese painting from the perspectives of Daoism philosophy and Gestalt psychology. Among its findings are that the technique of "leaving blank" emphasizes that in the sense of the whole the virtual embodies the real; that in the sense of unity, the real embodies the virtual; that in the sense of completeness, the virtual and the real embody each other; that in the sense of contrast the virtual and the real supplement and enhance each other. Indeed, "leaving blank" is a special language. It's a language of artistic creation; it is a psychological language for artistic appreciation; it is a language of art shared by both the creative artists and the critics of art. In educational practice, the outcome of this thesis can help students to understand the philosophical underpinnings and psychological language of Chinese painting.