Man and nature – pervasive pattern
Mountains, rocks and moral patterns
| Fascination with mountains also has its origin in religion. From an early stage, high places were seen as nodes of energy and were employed for ceremony and retreat. In later times, the habitation of mountains developed a symbiotic relation with painting – painted representations suggested dramatic ways of managing landscapes, while observations of temples and huts were recorded in painting. Mountains were also 'civilized' by design. Aside from the place they were given in art and literature, specific mountains were re-organized by paths that were built through them. These not only created access, but were made for drama and to demonstrate ideas. The visitor would be led along a journey of views, surprises, variations in difficulty and so forth. Along the way calligraphic inscriptions in the living rock or on man-made structures would point to poetry and philosophical reflection. In religious settings, imagery might also be profoundly integrated with natural stone formations – in these examples from Linyin Monastery in Hangzhou, Buddhist figures appear to have been hidden in stones that have fallen open. By the Ming period, literati travels in well-developed mountains were tourism that resembled performance art where the visitor was the subject. This are accounted in published dairies and reflected in woodblock printed guides for the larger market. |   |   | |
| Wuyi Shan 2003 | Guide to Emei Shan Reproduction Original, 19th century | ||
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| Linyin Monastery Hangzhou 10th to 14th century | Linyin Monastery Hangzho |