The spiritual essence of Chinese seascape art

Li Yue ORCID: 0009-0002-0744-2613 Graduate student, School of Arts and Humanities 690922, Russia, Primorsky Krai, Vladivostok, Ajax str., 10P li.yue1@dvfu.ru

The seascape genre became widespread in China along with the depiction of other natural landscapes much later than in the Western art space, only at the end of the twentieth century, but had a strong influence on the development of modern landscape painting in the country. Its formation as an independent genre required Chinese artists to rethink those artistic and visual methods and techniques used by previous generations of authors. Moreover, in the national artistic tradition, the depiction of the sea and ocean was extremely rare. These were almost always examples of the conscious retreat of the masters of "mountains and waters" from the established figurative system, where water was often not depicted at all. The emergence of the first attempts to convey the elements by means of traditional painting, and then the marina in the visual arts of the 20th century was largely evidence of profound changes in the spiritual life of Chinese society, existing philosophical and aesthetic ideas. Without addressing them, without searching for the prerequisites and causes of the transformations that have occurred in thinking, it is difficult to understand the essence of the described complex and complex phenomenon, which is only taking shape and gaining its originality. At the same time, there is also a development of a common strategy for the approaches of his research, methods of their implementation, that is, the most optimal methodology. This article is aimed at identifying a set of methods that make it possible to identify the specifics of the spiritual, moral, philosophical and aesthetic content of the seascape in Chinese painting, including by referring to the works of researchers who directly or indirectly deal with these issues.

In order to determine the place of the seascape in the space of Chinese painting of the last third of the XX and the first decades of the XXI century, it is necessary to identify and mark the circle of those authors who turned to the image of the sea before the designated period, to analyze the causes of the interest and manner of execution, and in connection with the socio-cultural features of their modern era. It seems that this requires a comparative historical analysis, as well as the compilation of a typology. The latter makes it possible, through the study and comparison of pictorial techniques and techniques, image motifs, to identify varieties of the genre of marine painting that existed before the second half of the twentieth century. This method can also be used to systematize similar paintings in traditional and modern Chinese painting.

Landscape has always occupied a key place in the hierarchy of genres accepted in Chinese art. He reached a special heyday during the reign of the Tang Dynasty. At that time, the worldview, ethics and aesthetics of the elite were shaped by Confucianism and the spiritual practices of Taoism, as well as Buddhism, which began to gain popularity. For example, according to Confucian teaching, comprehending the world of nature, a person learns the "heavenly principles" and the highest ethical laws ^[1]. For all these philosophical and religious trends, natural forces became a source and means of improving and developing noble qualities in a person. Naturally, such a perception and understanding of nature served as a powerful incentive for the development of landscape painting. Moreover, the transformations of these concepts led to changes in the inner content of the images in the paintings. In the paintings of that era and much later, landscapes of mountains, rivers and lakes of inland, rather than coastal China, are presented from a seemingly bird's-eye view. These works are not an accurate depiction of the corners of nature. It is a perfectly organized and stylized world in which the dark outlines of the earth exist in harmonious unity with almost unmarked skies and waters, where an unchanging order reigns. The chaos and impermanence of the sea element did not fit into such a picture of the world. In addition, the limited means of artistic expression and color palette played a role, which did not allow to convey the changeable beauty and immensity of such waters. Even if occasionally there are paintings depicting the sea, they were created using traditional linear drawings, and were often associated with the need to reproduce episodes of the journey of various characters, especially mythological ones, through unknown seas. An example is Xia Gui's sketch "Autumn Tide in Qiantang", Zhu Yu's "Longgong Water House", created during the reign of the Yuan Dynasty, Shang Xi's "Four Immortal Gongshou Tu", "Diving Map in the Sea House" and "Three Mountains on the Sea" by Yuan Jiang of the Qing Dynasty, "Penglai Wonderland" and Yuan Yao's "Tidal Observation Map", Ma Yuan's "Water Paintings", which turned into a set of diagrams of images of different states of the sea element in accordance with the capabilities of pen and ink, etc. Nevertheless, as Li Haitao notes, "most of the cultural centers were concentrated in the capital, and it was located in the interior of the country. Most of the coastal areas were sparsely populated territories, the sea was seen as inaccessible and dangerous, so the coastal areas were on the political, economic and cultural periphery. All this hindered the development of marine painting. From the point of view of technology, the constantly changing nature of the sea was a difficult task for ancient painting, and there was no ready-made theory and techniques that could give an incentive" ^[2].

S.N. Voronin ^[3], Zhang Shao ^[4] and Yu Lin ^[5] in Russia, as well as Wang Bomin ^[6], Li Yu ^[7], Zong Baihua ^[8], Yu Jianhua ^[9] and others. In China, they highlight the development of landscape art in China through the prism of transformations in the country's culture. In the context of the development of landscape art of the Celestial Empire, or rather the symbolic and artistic system of "mountains and waters", images of water, albeit indirectly, were considered by such researchers as E.V. Vinogradova ^[10], V.L. Sychev ^[11], S.N. Sokolov-Remizov ^[12], E.V. Zavadskaya ^[13], L.I. Kuzmenko ^[14] and M. Qiaoming ^[15].

In the 1970s, a group of painters emerged in China who used traditional painting to express a maritime theme, and their work was well received by colleagues, scientists and the general public. Song Lao, Li Haitao, Xue Xuanlin, Gao Quan, Li Dong, Guo Wenwei and other authors made the first attempts to find elements of the artistic language of the Chinese version of marina. Naturally, they were influenced by Western art, which demonstrated brilliant examples of marine art, especially in the 19th century. However, these masters began to look for expressive means and spiritual foundations not only among foreign samples, but also within their national artistic tradition. Moreover, Li Haitao believes that "after the reforms to openness, the rapid growth of the coastal economy naturally led to a new round of development of Chinese pictorial art" ^[2]. Turning to the theme of the sea, for which there were no ready-made schemes and techniques in national art, as well as a philosophical and aesthetic base, provided an excellent opportunity to express the artist's individual artistic style and all kinds of experiments.

M.A. Neglinskaya ^{[16],[17],[18]}, Li Zhixuan ^[19], V.A. Litvinov ^[20], A.I. Kapinus ^{[21],[22],[23],[24]}, who study the contemporary art of China in the works of modern Russians and (or) Chinese artists note that the emergence of this genre is associated with the reinterpretation by Chinese artists of the spiritual foundations of traditional painting, its synthesis with the ideas and images of Western art. Yu. Li and G.V. Alekseeva analyze the origin and formation of marina in the space of Chinese painting from antiquity to the beginning of the XXI century ^[25]. The stylistic and comparative methods used by these researchers help to find originality in the artistic language of Russian and Chinese marinists. A separate problem of the formation of the seascape in modern Chinese painting in the space of Russian science is dealt with by M. Li ^[26], I. Yang ^[27],[28], Ts. Lu ^[29], S. Zhao ^[30], C. Zheng ^[31]. Li Zhixuan ^[32], Yang Yi ^[33], Li Meng ^[34], G.S. Gultyaeva ^[35] and other authors. They focus on understanding the processes taking place in the Chinese marina of the late XX – early XXI century. Meanwhile, turning to the analysis of the work of famous marinists, these authors consider it primarily in the context of modern art, without paying attention to the connection with the artistic and philosophical traditions of the past.

A separate issue is the place of the marina in the context of the development of the landscape genre in Chinese art. Thus, C. Li believes that it is important to study the marine painting in the context of the philosophical and aesthetic content of "Shan Shui" and should be understood as its variety, since "the breadth of coverage of landscape images far exceeds other genres of fine art in China and most often includes all their elements" ^{[36, p. 154]}. Nevertheless, I. Yang offers a different philosophical and aesthetic understanding of the two key varieties of marina in Chinese art, at the same time, believing that both the "traditional marina" and the "new marina" manifest themselves the same idea - "the unity of man and heaven", characteristic of ancient landscapes. But in the first case, according to the author, the influence of Chinese philosophy and religious systems is strong, and in the second case, there is a synthesis with Western ideas about nature ^[37].

Departing slightly from the main topic of the article, we recall that since the late 1970s, and especially after the 3rd Plenum of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1978, the Chinese government decided to reform national economic attitudes. The State policy was aimed at developing and implementing a policy of reform and openness to the outside world. During the 1980s, China went through several stages, including the creation of special economic zones, the opening of coastal cities and districts to foreign investment, and the formation of open inland and coastal economic and technological development zones. More than 2/3 of the country is occupied by mountain ranges, highlands and plateaus, deserts and semi-deserts. Currently, about 90% of the population lives in only 10% of the country's area — in coastal areas.

Turning to the conclusions, it can be summed up that Chinese marine painting is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon closely related to the spiritual life of the Chinese. As the analysis of existing studies and the methodology used has shown, this process cannot be considered without taking into account the influence on the perception and understanding of the natural elements of traditional Chinese philosophy, especially when it comes to rare examples in the works of artists who worked before the 20th century. At the same time, when analyzing the creative activity of modern marinists, current trends in the field of marine painting, it is impossible not to take into account the fascination of Chinese artists with existentialism, abstractionism, structuralism, realism, and the influence of postmodernism. However, it is important to understand that currently the marina in Chinese art is a space of experiments aimed at finding ways to depict waves in different lighting conditions and in different conditions, surroundings, and an effort to convey the sound and taste of the elements.

The above-mentioned studies demonstrate different approaches to the study of the seascape in Chinese painting, its spiritual essence. Thus, the formal analysis used by researchers makes it possible to identify signs in landscapes of the past and present that make it possible to attribute a work to a certain genre and type of art. The identification of certain features and even varieties of seascapes in modern Chinese painting suggests the existence of an emerging stable pictorial system within which Chinese authors work. At the same time, scientists note that such images are not characterized by the canonicity of traditional Chinese painting, since stylistic and artistic boundaries remain quite flexible and mobile.

The birth of this kind of landscape was the result of a radical breakdown in the perception and interpretation of those natural elements that previously existed in the space of a speculative "void", and then, under the influence of changes in world perception, they began to be embodied by means of fine art. In the course of analyzing the works under consideration, especially the development of the genre, researchers apply an iconographic method that allows them to systematize and interpret the changing patterns of images and the meanings behind them. In addition to paintings, the source of iconographic analysis is philosophy and literature, in which the theme of nature and the image of the sea element actively manifest themselves. Seascape in modern Chinese art is now considered as an actively developing communicative and semiotic structure that speaks a special figurative and symbolic language, which is based on a complex synthesis of aesthetic concepts of Chinese philosophy, Western understanding of nature and ways of its embodiment by means of painting. Due to all this, Chinese marinists at the beginning of the XXI century have a unique range of artistic techniques that allow them to convey the spirit of the sea element in the eyes of a representative of their ancient civilization. Marina is now a symbol of the diversity of modern Chinese art and freedom of artistic search.