In praise of Wang Wei

After tea and yoghurt, I started to walk the way Westbound down to the riverside. Without expectations I was going in the thick mist. But on arrival at “the Riverscene” the rising sun began to lift lightly the white veil over the water. In the distance “Carlsheaven” remained hidden. Sitting on a small riverstone I tuned in on the world more vanishing than appearing.

When I got cold, I walked on through the wet grass. My shoes got soaked but why would I mind?
Here in this magnificent silent morning, imbued with invisibility and sudden local dissolving of the mist... Over the camping site I followed my way to the central turning of the Weser. Just in front of the harbour town, the two young swans came sailing down to join me and the ducks, but unfortunately I had forgotten to bring some old bread with me.

So I wandered through my mysty Riverscapes. Quasi Present in this Poetic Painting & Photography-All-in-One. I tried to feel the Opening of Emptiness inside&outside. Here I could feel touched by the energies of the the Three Perfections: Cheng Ch’ien san Chüeh. That is a thousand year old Chinese name for the intimate interconnectedness between the three incomparable Arts of Poetry, Painting and Calligraphy. One of my greatest sources of inspiration.

Wang Wei (699-759), the poet-painter and calligrapher being a kind of exemplary Master from the Tang-period. As Su Tung Po (1037-1101) remarked about that perfect art of Wang Wei: “the poems hold a painting within them. In observing his paintings you can see that, within the painting there is poetry”. Clearly you should remain very modest and self conscious in relation to this sky-high perfection. I really do not want to suggest that my humble contributions to this Journal could ever in any respect be compared to such highest, most Sublime Form of Integrated Art.

I only want to say here that since my school time years this Threefold Art has been my object of interest and admiration. And perhaps, in my best moments I have tried to follow this “hidden ambition” by opening up my inner self in such a way that I could feel inspired to experience the world both poetically and painterly (not picturesque), like these sublime Chinese Masters did.

I’m neither a poet nor a painter, though I’ve written poems and made some paintings. But when using my pen(cil) and or my brushes - or more recently my Lumix - it is my deep emotional longing to feel in that very flowing moment of creation, I don not know what:

that all embracing unexpected experience of Being in Touch with, you name it: the Tao, Chi, the Formless Form, Nothingness. And finally I may hope to share this kind of inspiration and creative experience with you seeing what I was looking for through the viewer of my Lumix on a mysty morning alongside the Weser River.