Some western scholars argue, based on the apparent formal differences between Chinese and Western landscape paintings, first that the Chinese have the idea of“heaven and man merging into one”( tian ren heyi 天人合一), man is not separated from nature and Chinese landscape thus represents pure nature with no human figures in the center"; second, "Western landscape tends to be more realistic than its Chinese counterpart". How do you agree with these two points? Do they seem reasonable to you? What do they see? What do they overlook?
Chinese painting emphasizes the overall nature of the picture, the integration of the subject and the scenery, and at the same time, it possesses both authenticity and artistic conception.
Chinese landscape paintings often have small, simple people ,like a fisherman. They show how big nature is and that people live in harmony with it. These paintings aren’t as lifelike as Western ones—they focus on capturing nature’s feeling, not copying it exactly.
The minute details of a tiny human figure embraced by nature embody the painter's reverence for the natural world. This, however, does not mean that Chinese painting lacks realism.
Chinese paintings has reflected the society,which includes the person and the nature.In some Chinese paintings,there's indeed a reflection of the characters which also means realistic.
The characters in Chinese landscape painting are not "dispensable", but form a "subject-object" relationship with the landscape through size, position, and dynamic design
The "unreality" of Chinese landscape painting is precisely the core of its artistic value - it abandons the superficial "image" but reaches a deeper "truth".
These points are partially reasonable as they correctly identify the philosophical ideal of harmony in Chinese art and the Western pursuit of perceptual verisimilitude, but they overlook the fact that Chinese landscapes often contain tiny, yet central, human figures to signify the conscious mind within nature, and they mistakenly equate Western perspective with realism, ignoring its constructed idealism and the profound conceptual abstraction in Chinese ink-wash techniques.
Chinese painting persues expressive realism rather than productive realism. And some Chinese landscapes use nature as a carrier for human emotions, making "pure nature" a misinterpretation.
Chinese landscape painting's content not only contains landscapes but also invovles figures. Besides, Chinese landscape painting's reality esteems from concept and image.
Not "pure nature without humans": human traces exsit in paintings Chinese landscapes pursue "spiritual realism" to convey nature’s essence and artists’ moods, not just visual accuracy.
Traditional Chinese painting, mainly landscape, emphasizes expression of the artist's inner vision, while Western landscape painting focuses on realistic representation of the actual scene.
I agree.They notice Chinese spiritual unity with nature and Western realism.And diversity in both traditions and overgeneralization about Chinese human figures.
I do not vote for the first point,because it's the Chinese that paint and complete these works so that human is naturally involved in the pictures even though they have no apparent form of expression like draw human figures out. And for the second one, there is no doubt that western pictures commonly are filled with more realistic colors and shapes without some kind of internal and obscure imagism or consensus reaching by Chinese and only can be understood by Chinese.
1. On "tian ren heyi" & no central humans: Reasonable (Chinese paintings use nature for harmony, e.g., Travelers Among Mountains and Streams), but overlooks hidden human traces (pavilions)—man is "in nature", not absent.
2. On "Western realism": Partly reasonable (uses perspective/light, e.g., Rembrandt), but ignores Chinese "expressive realism" (brushwork conveys essence, e.g., Ni Zan)—a different authenticity.
3. Summary: Scholars see formal differences but miss cultural cores—Chinese "man merges into nature" vs. Western "man observes nature", with distinct "authenticity" definitions.