True Beauty Is Beauty Veiled and True Art Is Artof Conceptual Depth

In scenic Hangzhou one often feels that there is too much to see to really feelsatisfied in the enjoyment of good scenery.

In the light of dawn when the mists and fog have not yet completely receded,one catches sight from a distance of the pagodas veiled in a soft haze while gentlebreezes waft by rustling the leaves on the trees without disturbing the birds, still onlyhalf-awake in their perches. How delicate and serene, how full of tranquillity and howgently appealing is the scenery at this hour! As twilight falls, one sees mists and fog emerging from all around, enfolding the lake nearby gradually and gently whilemaking the distant hills look even more distant. How elusively and alluringlybeautiful is the scenery before one now that the lake seems submerged all innebulous evening haze! Under the clear inky sky on a cloudless night when thereflection of a crescent moon lies shimmering on the rippling surface of the lake andwhen numerous twinkling stars are dancing in the midst of the ripples under yourfeet, with a nebulous haze thinly veiling the surrounding scenery and with only thedimly heard bells of faraway ancient temples penetrating the utter tranquillity of yourworld, what a fantastic place this dream-world Hangzhou has become! When ithappens that a misty drizzling rain is falling in Hangzhou and everything is shroudedin haze, revealing itself only now and then, a kind of scenery which an ancient poetonce described in the following words：“Lotus flowers being veiled in mist and fog/There they are but only an indistinct sight”, one will then ask：“Is this all real orunreal? Are they all there or are they not?”Looking around on the shores of theWest Lake, one beholds the distant surrounding hills. Dyed a bluish-black now, theyare the home of hovering thin, white clouds, light as cotton, sometimes in the form ofthin wisps and drifting aimlessly about. Some of the hills seem covered half in fogand mist, eternally, veiling mystically the green trees on their slopes. This dreamlikequality in the scenic beauty of Hangzhou with all its mystical associations is aneternal temptation. It is scenery that is aesthetically and spiritually satisfying.

In garden art as in other branches of art such as music, literature, painting, etc.,a requirement or criterion of vital importance is how thought- and emotion-provokinga work can be, that is, a right balance of explicitness and implicitness （“hanxu”in Chinese）. In technical terms, if a work of art is totally implicit, it falls short in thesense that people will fail to see what is in it. On the other hand, if something iscompletely explicit, then people will not think it worth their while to ponder over it.What is necessary is, as one poet has said, “A painting limited in size but unlimitedin its evocations.”

In good garden design, a bridge may have a few turns and a path often has manybends. Having many twists and turns may give more pleasure to those in a garden. In Chinese there is the phrase“qu jing tong you”or “winding paths lead to secluded places”. This means that only when there is change is there the desire to try and lookfor more. It is also true of one's experience of catching a glimpse of a corner of acurtain in a woods and knowing that there must be a home there or catching aglimpse of a colorful streamer and knowing there must be a wineshop ahead.Likewise, a few tadpoles in a painting may evoke in the mind a picture of anendless stream.

qu jing tong you

On the central isle near the Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, one sees, in themidst of flowers and trees, white-washed walls with see-through holes or windows.Outside the walls are groves of bamboo stalks swaying in the breezes and inside thewalls are luxuriant green trees. Above the moon gate in the walls there is a board onwhich are inscribed four Chinese characters：Zhu Jing Tong You, which means“abamboo-shaded path leading to secluded places”. The narrow, shaded path outsidethe moon gate threads its way forward, disappearing in the distance in the depths ofthe bamboo groves. This makes one think of the widely known poetic line：“Thecourtyard looks fathomless indeed but how fathomless can it be.”This is how the ruleof a balance of explicitness and implicitness is being applied.