The Five Elements Structure
3 min readWestern artists tend to utilize focused perspective, and the literati employ traditional prosaic perspective. Following a style different from either, with Chinese folk art, the art form is based on the perspective of original Chinese philosophy.
Paper-cut “Rat eating oil,” in which the oil jar is a metaphor of mother’s body, and the rat a symbol of having a lot of children. However, the jar opening is an arc and the bottom is a straight level line. “A jar needs to sit on a flat surface, “explained the creator. Actually, in here the arc is likened to the sky and the bottom to earth;
together it is a symbol of the universe with a round sky and a square earth. Unlike the cubism in Western modern art in which circles and squares are formed by geometry figures; Chinese folk art structure is counter perspective, which is based on the concepts of Chinese philosophy.
Paper-cut “Community gathering on Chinese New Year” (Zhongyang, Shanxi).
Folk paper-cut “Magpie nest”(Ansai, Shaanxi).
To draw a house, they perceive it from the five-element perspective. For example, when depicting plane view of house, they draw the front side, as well as the flank sides which cannot be seen from front, because, in their words, the house has its side walls. Painting a suitcase they would also paint the patterns on the side of the suitcase even though they were not in sight from a straight perspective.
In depicting a scene of a community gathering in the central yard of a courtyard house, the plane view of the entire scene is fully unfolded without any overlapping.
The house on the east, west, south and north four sides of the courtyard are all drawn in a flat, horizontal view, with bottom base towards the center; all human figures at the scene are laid down with their feet towards the center. This is an exemplary composition of five-element concept originated in original Chinese philosophy.
When showing rural family life, they present the scenes both inside and outside the house, from the house-ware to the people at the site. side view of a tree and a front view of a magpie nest fully uncover the lovely baby magpies inside the nest.
Such freelance drawing is like shooting with a movie camera, taking in what’s happening along the way.
To draw a human profile portrait, they draw two eyes instead of one. When mentioned that the other eye couldn’t be seen, they claimed, “But human has two eyes.”
In art work “Herd Grazing, ” cowherd boy standing under tree is given a composite head with a front and two side views, because “he has to look around to watch the herd, not just looking straight ahead.” The livestock also have left and right two heads; as “they need to eat the grass on both sides. This is conceptual language of art to describe synchronization of time and separate space.
Folk painting ‘Grazing” (Yijun, Shaanxi).
Folk paper-cut ‘”Jiang Ziya’s fishing’ (Yijun, Shaanxi).
“Jiang Ziya’s fishing”shows his full face, a half side and a full side face in three different expressions, attentive and focused while fishing; joyous wave when the fish approaching the bait; and a broad smile when catching the fish. It is an integration of time and space at a fishing scene, the same conceptual art as in “Herd Grazing.”
