GREEK AND CHINESE ART IDEALS 23 



knowledge of natural processes daring the last hundred years 

 is doubtful; especially if that knowledge continues to be 

 used to harmless the forces of nature for mutual destruction. 

 There can be no doubt that a system of government founded 

 on the permanence of family life has in many respects advan- 

 tages over that whose slogan is "Every man for himself." 

 The pendulum will probably swing back to Confucius with 

 the new demand for team work and scientific grouping of 

 human labour towards the goal of universal mutual help and 

 respect which will be a realisation of the Chinese saying 

 "All under heaven one family." 



In its effect on art, Confucian teaching carried the 

 Chinese through the mists of religious symbolism and 

 obscurantism to the interpretation of nature herself. Chinese 

 poetry, which shows the influence of the Confucian scholar 

 most is most true to nature. The poet painters of China 

 were perhaps the first painters of natural truth in landscape. 

 Nature and the sages were the inspiration of their work. 

 They sought the mountain solitudes, where they got into 

 touch with nature, freeing their minds from the cobwebs of 

 superstition, their souls from the petty tyrannies and narrow 

 conventions of too much human intercourse, and their bodies 

 from the fetor of the cities by the pure air of the mountains, 

 the fragrance of the flowers and the music of the birds. 

 This craving for the mountains was an essential part of their 

 philosophy, a desire for solitude and communion with the 

 great heart of nature. An act of worship at a great natural 

 altar, leading to tranquillity, giving the poise essential for 

 acquiring a due sense of proportion and balance, and leading 

 to that harmony which was also the essence of the Greek 

 spirit. The poet painter having found solace and obtained 

 a glimpse of heaven would return to his study and set down 

 the ideas of his mind activated by his communion with 

 nature and by means of his brush create a picture from the 

 inmost recesses of his soul. 



We have now reached what may be regarded as the 

 highest development of Chinese art — that of landscape 

 painting. The assessment of the true position of Chinese 

 painting in the history of comparative art is not yet deter- 

 mined but the tendency is to place it very high. It has, 

 indeed, been considered by competent critics as the greatest 

 school of landscape the world has ever seen. This is 

 probably an exaggeration, considering that Chinese painting 

 has scarcely developed beyond that of Giotto in figure paint- 

 ing. Pure landscape painting evolved late in Europe, say, 

 in the seventeenth century. Previously it had been a mere 

 accompaniment of figure painting. 



