Chinese Landscape Painting - article about Chinese Landscape Painting

Chinese landscape painting is an ancient art form that has moved and inspired people for many generations. Even people who are very “Western” in thought can benefit from studying this style of art. In fact, Chinese landscape painting helped me pass a very difficult college course about Eastern culture.

My biggest problem with the course was that I had to re-teach myself how to think. I have a tendency to make associations and I commonly use what I have already learned as a foundation on which to build. New information builds on old information in the structure of my mind. When considering Eastern philosophy, this is definitely not the best approach.

The professor sent back paper after paper with the same remarks. She stated that I needed to let go of my Western philosophy and literary background in order to comprehend the information in the course appropriately. I had no idea how to do this. I always used analogies and reference point up until I studied Chinese landscape painting.

My very last assignment in The World of Confucius was to write a comprehensive essay about Chinese landscape painting. I was at a loss because this assignment was supposed to be a compilation of everything I learned in the class. Considering that I couldn’t make analogies or use examples as reference points, I simply started writing. I really didn’t know what else to do.

I looked at the Chinese landscape painting for a long time, so long that I actually felt as if I were part of the image. I figured that I had nothing to lose so I just wrote what came to my mind. I didn’t use footnotes or even proper format. In fact, I tried to get to the 10 page requirement by putting extra spaces between the words to make the document stretch.

The first two pages printed normally but the following pages condensed the words back leaving huge gaps on the page. My document about Chinese landscape painting was a true disaster as far as I was concerned. I gave up and put the essay in the professor’s mailbox.

I was astonished to find a big, red A on the front of the paper when it was returned. The professor said that I finally understood that I just needed to let go. The Chinese landscape painting was the perfect tool for this. She also added that making designs with the words in the document was a nice touch. Funny how things fall into place when you just relax.

Comments	Date

Name:
Comments :

<a href="http://www.refresharticles.com/articles/philosophy/chinese_landscape_painting_16.txt">Chinese Landscape Painting</a>