Preface to the Painting Manual, Volume 1: Frontispiece

...how could there be any difference? Among the birds and beasts, there are those that fly and those that dive The original text uses "fei qian" (飛潛), a classical pairing referring to creatures of the air and the water.. Among the grasses and trees, there are those with color and those with fragrance.

Yet, the ability to fly or dive does not arise from movement, but is born from stillness. Likewise, color and fragrance do not arise from physical existence, but are born from the void This reflects the Daoist and Buddhist aesthetic principle that the "functioning" or "spirit" of the world arises from a state of non-being or quietude..

Thus, the painter happens to return to the original substance benti: the essential, underlying nature of a thing, independent of its external, changing appearance where there is no [fixed state of] flying or diving, and no [transient] color or fragrance. Why is this so? The physical acts of flying and diving cannot endure forever, and the qualities of color and fragrance ultimately end in extinction The text uses the term "Jimie" (寂滅), often used in Buddhist contexts to describe the cessation of worldly phenomena or the state of Nirvana.. Is it not, then, the work of the artist that provides a lasting benefit to the world?