登陆注册
5240900000025

第25章 CHAPTER Nature and Art(1)

We have seen how impersonal is the form which Far Eastern thought assumes when it crystallizes into words. Let us turn now to a consideration of the thoughts themselves before they are thus stereotyped for transmission to others, and scan them as they find expression unconsciously in the man's doings, or seek it consciously in his deeds.

To the Far Oriental there is one subject which so permeates and pervades his whole being as to be to him, not so much a conscious matter of thought as an unconscious mode of thinking. For it is a thing which shapes all his thoughts instead of constituting the substance of one particular set of them. That subject is art.

To it he is born as to a birthright. Artistic perception is with him an instinct to which he intuitively conforms, and for which he inherits the skill of countless generations. From the tips of his fingers to the tips of his toes, in whose use he is surprisingly proficient, he is the artist all over. Admirable, however, as is his manual dexterity, his mental altitude is still more to be admired; for it is artistic to perfection. His perception of beauty is as keen as his comprehension of the cosmos is crude; for while with science he has not even a speaking acquaintance, with art he is on terms of the most affectionate intimacy.

To the whole Far Eastern world science is a stranger. Such nescience is patent even in matters seemingly scientific. For although the Chinese civilization, even in the so-called modern inventions, was already old while ours lay still in the cradle, it was to no scientific spirit that its discoveries were due. Notwithstanding the fact that Cathay was the happy possessor of gunpowder, movable type, and the compass before such things were dreamt of in Europe, she owed them to no knowledge of physics, chemistry, or mechanics.

It was as arts, not as sciences, they were invented. And it speaks volumes for her civilization that she burnt her powder for fireworks, not for firearms. To the West alone belongs the credit of manufacturing that article for the sake of killing people instead of merely killing time.

The scientific is not the Far Oriental point of view. To wish to know the reasons of things, that irrepressible yearning of the Western spirit, is no characteristic of the Chinaman's mind, nor is it a Tartar trait. Metaphysics, a species of speculation that has usually proved peculiarly attractive to mankind, probably from its not requiring any scientific capital whatever, would seem the most likely place to seek it. But upon such matters he has expended no imagination of his own, having quietly taken on trust from India what he now professes. As for science proper, it has reached at his hands only the quasimorphologic stage; that is, it consists of catalogues concocted according to the ingenuity of the individual and resembles the real thing about as much as a haphazard arrangement of human bones might be expected to resemble a man.

Not only is the spirit of the subject left out altogether, but the mere outward semblance is misleading. For pseudo-scientific collections of facts which never rise to be classifications of phenomena forms to his idea the acme of erudition. His mathematics, for example, consists of a set of empiric rules, of which no explanation is ever vouchsafed the taught for the simple reason that it is quite unknown to the teacher. It is not even easy to decide how much of what there is is Jesuitical. Of more recent sciences he has still less notion, particularly of the natural ones. Physics, chemistry, geology, and the like are matters that have never entered his head. Even in studies more immediately connected with obvious everyday life, such as language, history, customs, it is truly remarkable how little he possesses the power of generalization and inference. His elaborate lists of facts are imposing typographically, but are not even formally important, while his reasoning about them is as exquisite a bit of scientific satire as could well be imagined.

But with the arts it is quite another matter. While you will search in vain, in his civilization, for explanations of even the most simple of nature's laws, you will meet at every turn with devices for the beautifying of life, which may stand not unworthily beside the products of nature's own skill. Whatever these people fashion, from the toy of an hour to the triumphs of all time, is touched by a taste unknown elsewhere. To stroll down the Broadway of Tokio of an evening is a liberal education in everyday art. As you enter it there opens out in front of you a fairy-like vista of illumination.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 平番始末

    平番始末

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 影的告别(感动青少年的文学名家名作精选集)

    影的告别(感动青少年的文学名家名作精选集)

    文学作品是以语言为手段塑造形象来反映社会生活、表达作者思想感情的一种艺术,是人生的一面镜子。好的文学作品具有潜移默化的巨大作用,它能够开阔视野,增长知识,陶冶我们的情操。
  • 神秘九爷萌妻来袭

    神秘九爷萌妻来袭

    九爷:谁家的?幕晚:你家的。九爷:准了。“世人不是说进了九爷的家,幸福无限么?”幕晚摸着腰一把心酸泪啊。
  • 瓜田李下女当家

    瓜田李下女当家

    【推荐新文《侍婢倾城:暴君不温柔》】什么?敢往她的南瓜里装石子?好吧,姐姐家粪池里的粪也还剩了不少。什么?敢借钱不还?好吧。不要怪我,姐姐我揭人瓦一揭一个准。什么?迂腐书呆不吃不喝?老姑娘没人要,没关系,女子当自强。
  • 病号

    病号

    两辆从相反方向行驶的火车,错在一起时速度是原来的二倍——在一个冬日的黄昏,我站在窗前,看着对面一幢四层高的写字楼的屋顶。夏天它还是一个露天酒吧,好多人喜欢呆在上面,他们手里抱着巨大的扎啤,以此来驱散溽热,打发光阴。一次,我亲眼看见我们楼里的一个花痴,端着酒杯从护栏的缺口,一步迈下屋顶,就像蹦级跳一样,所不同的是,他的脚下没有拴绳。这个花痴四十多岁,一直暗恋着写字楼里的一个年轻秘书。
  • 末世系统之萧霖

    末世系统之萧霖

    末世降临前:萧霖对被继母怂恿试图扣押自己学费的亲爹使出了传说中的终极大杀招:断子绝孙腿。末世降临后:萧霖与从天而降狠狠砸到自己后脑勺的逗比系统携手并进,愉快的踏上了末世写文的康庄大道!
  • 穿越之千年泪

    穿越之千年泪

    他来到这个陌生的国家,他遇到人生最美的她。当他爱上她,历史已经滑出了可以控制的轨迹。他在战乱中陪伴着她,他为了她接受了扭曲时空的惩罚。因为怕失去,他选择留下。因为他的留下,他却又不得不永远离开。他爱她,却无法相守。她爱她,却无法挽留。情节虚构,请勿模仿!
  • 满汉斗

    满汉斗

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Hunchback

    The Hunchback

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 怪谈异闻

    怪谈异闻

    @怪谈异闻知名读物博主接受私信投稿