Wang Chen c. 1918

Tao is the road up your spine.
Tao is the road of your life.
Tao is the road of the cosmos.

 

People are often confused about Tao because there are references to it on so many different levels.  After all, it permeates all existence.  Indeed it might be said that Tao is existence itself.  It might seem odd that we can talk about Tao on a level so mundane as physical exercise and on a level as exalted as holiness itself. Those who follow Tao do not think of divinity as something "up there."  They think of it as everywhere.

Tao can be tangible when it wants and intangible when it wants to.  One tangible aspect of Tao is the road in the very center of our spines.  That is the the path of Tao in us.  It is the sprit road connecting the various power centers of our bodies.

On a philosophical level, Tao is the road through life.  It is the change from one stage to another, the dealing with circumstances, the expression of your inner character against the background of nature and society.  On a metaphysical level, it is the evolution and movement of the cosmos itself.

Now take these three levels -- the movement of energy up the spine, the philosophical understanding of one's own path in life, and the very progression of the universe -- and meld them all into one combined concept.  Then you will have a glimpse of the genius of Tao.
 
 

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Album of Ten Leaves, Figures and Landscapes
Wang Chen
China
1914
album leaves: ink and colors on paper
16 -1/2 x 12 -3/4
Painting
On extended loan from the Ching Yüan Chai Collection

Wang Chen was closely tied to the school of Shanghai artists active in the early part of the twentieth century and studied with Jen I, whose works can be seen elsewhere in the exhibition. Wang's paintings reflect this influence, particularly in being highly calligraphic. He was a devout Buddhist, a revolutionary, and a businessman in a period of great turmoil in China.

"Wang Chen is an artist who has only recently begun to be taken seriously. He was overshadowed by Wu Ch'ang-shih, for whom he sometimes ghost-painted, and also suffered from having painted too much, often repetitively. He did hundreds of pictures for Japanese friends and visitors to Shanghai - he was a  comprador for a Japanese company - and his works could be found in Japan at the Yûshima Seidô [the Confucian temple in Tokyo] in some number and very cheap. But this album, a relatively early work, is special. The pictures of beggars, in particular, are sensitive and moving, and in the tradition of the great Chou Ch'en series. (The Huang Shen Beggars and Street Entertainers in this exhibition, fine as they are in their way, are comparatively soft, and have less impact.) Wang's paintings of such subjects, not many, relate to his  prominence as a philanthropist and organizer of relief funds in Shanghai."

 bampfa@uclink.berkeley.edu
www.bampfa.berkley.edu