On our visit to China we hiked all the way up Mt Huangshan (or just 'Huangshan') will do in search of the inspiration for the classic Asian scroll, or the Chinese landscape scroll.
Classically the landscape is the most important of all Asian scroll art. You will have seen what I mean:
Jutting, jagged rocks, precipices, twisted pine trees, and seas of clouds. The mists that shroud the steep-walled valleys, with the tops of mountains rising above the clouds like islands.
We managed to hike all the way up Huang shan, which wasn't bad for a 3 hour hike and carrying a 3 year old. It was really worth it. That was when we felt really inspired to let the world know about the beauty of the landscape that inspired the Asian scroll.
The lines of the classic landscape scroll are refined. Never too much is revealed, nothing too overt is shown. The outline of a pine is hinted at, ghosting through the swirling mists. Much like the very landscape itself.
I could look at Chinese landscape scrolls all day. The conjure up mystical mental views and far away places.
If you ever get to visit Huang Shan, and stand above the 'North Sea' at dawn to see a lonely mountain goat frisking up a sheer cliff face, the clouds tinged orange, you'll understand the Asian scroll and will love it for ever.
What is it about the Asian landscape that has delighted the Chinese for centuries? And equally, captivated Westerns more recently?
For me it is the unknown, the semi-revealed. The landscape that is there, then not there, vanished into the mist again. To stand atop Huang Shan is a mystical, eerie experience, the realm of faeries and spirits.
When you have an Asian scroll in your home and feel frazzled, you can stand in front and recapture that sense of elevation, mystery, standing between the world of reality and the abode of the gods. If that is perspective, then beauty is perspective.
There is another side to Huang Shan. Walking the hillside tracks amidst the throng of Chinese tourists, it is possible to forget for a while exactly where you are. In places of 'great beauty' marked by signs reading the same is a sea of tourists with brightly colored hats, flags and endless tour leaders with megaphones blaring. It can be an easy distraction. But they love it.
Quickly and quietly we scoot ahead. The early mornings mist still rising and swirling all around us. Down a forgotten path to the very edge of a deep precipice. Over looking again the incredible grandeur of the landscape as a hint of warm air brushes our cheeks on its way from deep below in the valley. As a bird some way off in the distance swirls, ducks and dives into the mist as if it were a bird fishing in the swirling sea.
Away from the throng we are transported once more to the mystical world of the Asian scroll and can see why this place more than any other has evoked the spirit of China and the essence of what is captured so elegantly in something as simple as ink on parchment.
This is truly and honestly the inspiration for the beauty that is the Asian scroll.
My name is Alex Perry and I am a Chinese medicine doctor with a strong interest in all things Asia. With a background in visual art and a love of travel I have pursued the beauty of the Asian Scroll for many years. Since my trip to the legendary Huangshan in China I have researched and enjoyed learning about the Asian Scroll and I am very proud to provide this information to you. You can find out more information about the Asian Scroll at the link below.
Asian Scroll
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