On "harmony" And Chinese Painting

“Harmonious” has become an increasingly hot topic in current China. It is also an important component in Chinese cultural construction. Traditional Chinese culture contains and embodies the values and methodology of harmony, which provides a valuable thought resource for the construction of a harmonious society and an inexhaustible momentum and resource for the development of Chinese culture. From the ancient time, “He” is deep in the blood of each Chinese person, supplying them with constant wisdom and methods. It has built up a solid bridge between man and nature, man and society, man and man, which closely links one with the other. As the unique and solid basis of Chinese philosophy, “He” gives Chinese culture a more distinctive national features and richer connotations. To some extent, it can summarize the Chinese humanistic spirit. Currently we advocate a harmonious society which takes harmonious development as its basic concept and further development to create harmonious thinking mode. All those provide fertile soil and good opportunity to further develop “He” and make it the solid foundation of current society with new interpretations and development.Painting is a shining star in the development of Chinese culture. Chinese traditional painting is an indispensable part of Chinese culture. In the long history of thousands of years, art has always been contributing a lot to the development of traditional Chinese culture. The development of various types of arts, with painting in the middle of it, makes Chinese culture more comprehensive and mature. At the same time, all different types of the arts, including painting, are rooted in the big background of the development of Chinese culture for a bright future, whose development is permeated with the concepts, methods and presentations of “He”.There are six principles in traditional Chinese painting. Just as Zhang Yanyuan said: “The essence of the six principles of painting has never changed through all ages.” The six principles of painting set the standards of evaluating Chinese painting and represented the thinking mode of “He” in Chinese people. Therefore, to give the six principles of painting a more detailed and multi-angled research has great significance in understanding the artistic spirit of traditional Chinese painting. As the result of the times, the six principles of painting was shaped under certain backgrounds. They should be studied in the cultural background of the author including the nourishments of the “He” culture. Only in this way, can the six principles of painting be correctly understood and interpreted and consequently influence artists' understanding of harmony in Chinese painting and guided their creation of painting.When Central Academy of Fine Arts was established, Mr. Xu Beihong, the famous art educator and artist, quoted from The Doctrine of the Mean, “Therefore, the superior man honors his virtuous nature, and maintains constant inquiry and study, seeking to carry it out to its breadth and greatness, so as to omit none of the more exquisite and minute points which it embraces, and to raise it to its greatest height and brilliancy, so as to pursue the course of the Mean. He cherishes his old knowledge, and is continually acquiring new. He exerts an honest, generous earnestness, in the esteem and practice of all propriety.” He chose “seeking to carry it out to its breadth and greatness” as the principle to guide students in their learning of line drawing and painting. Breadth and greatness are two poles just like “Yin” and “Yang” which seem to contract with each other. Gaining the wisdom of harmony, Mr. Xu Beihong used those two ideas to deal with the problems of painting. The profound traditional culture should be integrated with the cultural development of modern times. We should try to discover the elements of traditional culture which are helpful to our life and study, develop it and make innovations to guide our painting, seek the nature of beauty and gorge ahead in our life career with persistence and determination.