Sun Tzu and Oriental Art

   The whole of chapter 5 of Sun Tzu is a desertation of  "Shi"  or force
   "Shi" or force/energy  is manifestion of "chi"



   Fast moving water moves stones, because of Shi (force )(,  a stretched bow is full of
 Shi



   Sun Tzu said " An able combatant relies on force"



   Great painter Gu Kai Zhi (344-402 ) of  East Zing period, in his essay 
" On the Painting titled "Sun Wu"" wrote



   " This painting was from the hands of Shun, the posture of the people in this
painting is very interesting. The two palace ladies are lovely and beautiful, they wear
expression of  horror on their faces. However, with some good arrangement and composition,
better layout of troops and forces, then we could transform the picture better"



   Gu Kai Zhi used the sentence "Zhi Zen bu Shi"   arrangement of troops and deployment
of forces.  Most interestingly "Zhi Zen Bu Shi" was used  dirrectluy refering to a painting
about the story of Sun Tzu's of two favourite concubines  in fromt of the king.



   For then on, artists--- painters and calligraphers--- used the concept of



"Zhi Zen bu Shi" in their persuit.



    In other works, artists envision the piece of paper in front of them as a large
battle field,  ink well, ink ingot, brush strokes as the combatants, brush, as weapon.
In painting a landscape, he must absorb the chi ( energy ) into his being, forms image
in his mind, then "yun chi"  ( mobilize his energy) into his hand to the tip of his brush
such that the brush strokes are full of Shi,( energy, force ) "Li tuo zi bay "
( the force of the brush penetrates the paper ) and complete the pictures.



  So the concept of chi, shi, energy, force is utomst important in oriental art



  To simply apply force is not enough,  just like a good commander must know how
to  use formation to arrange the troups, so the artists must know how to arrange
his objects in his battle field --- canvas.




   Wang Xi Zhi-- reputed to be the greatest calligrapher in anncient China wrote



  " The paper is the battle field, the brush is the sword, the ingot is the armory,
the ink well is the  castle, the mind is the general, the arrangement is the strategy
of commander......."



    In other words, ancient artists consider the composition has similarity to
the  deployment of forces, the formation, of military commander.



    From the higher level,  from the height of Unity of Cosmos with ego, the universe
is one,  the painting and the mind is one;  troups in battle field and ink on
canvas  is one.



   Painter Zhou Zuo of Ming Dynasty wrote: " To paint large  San Sui ( mountain and water )
the most important thing is to get the Shi"  ie, get the force. 



   The concept of Chi, shi  was lay out in many classics, but Chapter 5 of Sun Tzu is
one of the most vivid and easy to understand than other more metaphysical tomes.




  

-- martin tai (cg081@torfree.net), August 01, 2001