Album of Eight Leaves: Fish and Fruit  Hsü-Ku   China 1856

 

Must you see nature as a machine? Is your only learning chemistry, physics, and      ontology? What if poetry was your template for life? Can't you know Tao by the feeling of mud in      your sandals? Thus are the sages called silly: They have given up their prejudices.

The world appears as you perceive it.  It is not that your perceptions are wholly shaped by a so-called objective world.  The habit of interpretation is interactive; we do things to test our hypothesis until we have created a complicated web of sensory input and centrifugal manipulation.  By the time we are "mature," we have created innumerable layers of interpretation and biased perception that become our templates for living.  Of course, we could have some fun with this situation.  We could change the templates that we use to interact with the world.

What if we used poetry instead of science?  What if we substituted spirituality for politics?  The results of such experimentation are often fresh, happy and unusual.  Unfortunately, when carried to their logical conclusions, they are just as futile as any other method.  Templates are essential for beginners, a hindrance for veterans.  True followers of Tao give up all templates and are without prejudices.  They return to the actions of infants.  Thus they are called silly.  But because they view the world with their inner eye, they transcend all the sorrows of life.
 
 
 

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Album of 8 Leaves: Fish and Fruit
Hsü-Ku
China
1856
album: ink and color on paper
13 x 10 -3/4
Painting
CT.20
Private Collection

Original name: Zhu Huai-jen
Hsu-pai
Tsu-yang shan-min

Hsü Ku was from She-hsien in Anhui province but worked in Yangchou, Suchou and Shanghai.
He served for a time in the military as his family background dictated. His military service did
not last long and he turned to Buddhism, becoming a monk.

He is best known as a painter of bird and flowers but was also accomplished in architectural
drawings and portraits. He was closely involved with the prominent Shanghai School artists
and is known to have collaborated with Jen I.

find this and all eight paintings in the collection at www.bampfa.berkeley.edu