Vanishing Artist Story in Daoist Lit

[Kuei...@notforemail.com]

In response to an old message

[begin quoted message]

"Somewhere, I think it was a book on Taoism, I read a story
about an artist who finished an elaborate wall painting of a lovely
garden. When the painting was finished,
the artist walked
into garden mural and disappeared into the wall, never to
be heard of again.

Anyone else read this story?

I'm trying to find the book (in English) where I read
the story but so far can't put my finger on it.

Any help out there?

Mike H."
[/end quoted message]

[quote]
In the history of Chinese painting we have numerous illustrations that
reveal this sense of spiritual intuition, a 'wholeness of spirit" that
moves freely and fearlessly into a "wholeness of universe" in a way
that Laurence Binyon has described for us. Perhaps one more
illustra-tion will help us. It is, perhaps, the most radical story of
its kind.

During the eighth century Wu Tao-tzu (d. 792) completed his last
masterpiece for the royal court. It was a landscape painted on a wall
of the court. Wu Tao-tzu worked patiently on it in solitude and kept
the work draped until it was completed and the Emperor arrived for its
unveiling. ',Wu Tao-tzu drew aside the coverings and the Emperor gazed
at the vast and awesome scene and its magnificent detail: woods,
mountains, limitless expanses of sky, speckled with clouds and birds,
and even men in the hills. "Look," said the artist pointing, "here
dwells a spirit in a moun-tain cave." Me clapped his hands and the
gate of the cave immediately flew open. The artist stepped in, turned,
and said, "The inside is even more beautiful. It is beyond words. Let
me lead the way!" But before the Emperor could follow or even bring
himself to speak, the gate, the artist, the painting and all faded
away. Before him remained only the blank wall with no trace of any
brush marks.

This charming story is intended to reveal directly to us that within
the outward appearances of all beauty there lies the rarer atmosphere,
or the "unity of back-ground," as Binyon calls it elsewhere, which
sen'es as the ultimate reality of all appearances. It is through this
ultimate reality that our minds are opened to see our own wholeness of
spirit, and enter into the wholeness of the universe, the deep
underlying harmony of all things
[end quotation]
From, Chang Chung- Yuan "Creativity and Taoism
Harper Colophon1970

pages 95 and 96

[Thomas]

<Kuei...@notforemail.com> a écrit dans le message news: > In response to

an old message
>
> [begin quoted message]
>
> "Somewhere, I think it was a book on Taoism, I read a story
> about an artist who finished an elaborate wall painting of a lovely
> garden. When the painting was finished,
> the artist walked
> into garden mural and disappeared into the wall, never to
> be heard of again.
>

It's in a novel by my favorite French writer Marguerite Yourcenar, "How Wang
Fo was saved" in her book of short stories "Nouvelles Orientales." It exists
in English http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1852900180/ Yourcenar's
interest for the East was one of the things that made me interested in
Chinese philosophy. She could have been inspired by a Taoist tale.
Greetings,
Thomas
My Daoist page:
http://www.geocities.com/hrt236/dao.html

[bookburn]

I read a story by, I think, Solzenitzen or Tolstoy, of an old prisoner
in Siberia who was being questioned by an initiate about being so
solitary and saintly. One day the old man turned and walked through
the prison wall. bookburn

In article <8t35j7$d5l$1...@news0.skynet.be>,

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

[Jaybuzin0000]

bb wrote:

>I read a story by, I think, Solzenitzen or Tolstoy, of an old prisoner
>in Siberia who was being questioned by an initiate about being so
>solitary and saintly. One day the old man turned and walked through
>the prison wall.

I read a sm'all tail recently
in which two blonds walked into a building.
You'd think one of them would have seen it.

[Michael Heim]

Yup, this is the source! It was on my bookshelf all the
time, and you put your finger on it. Thank you!!!

MH

On Mon, 23 Oct 2000 21:08:10 -0400, Kuei...@notforemail.com wrote:

>In response to an old message
>
>[begin quoted message]
>
>"Somewhere, I think it was a book on Taoism, I read a story
> about an artist who finished an elaborate wall painting of a lovely
>garden. When the painting was finished,
> the artist walked
> into garden mural and disappeared into the wall, never to
> be heard of again.
>