On a mountain path in spring.
13th c Chinese Song Painting

MA Yuan (c. 1190 - 1279) Primary
1220
13th c
Song
China.
Teipei. National Museum.
Intro23.chi01084
The Chinese had a related concept of man in harmony with the forces of nature but they represented it in different visual form through the placement of small human figures in a large landscape. As you see in this 13th century painting, man is a part of nature; he must not try to conquer it, but rather should strive to obtain harmony with it. The Greeks combined the search for harmony with a Western push toward control. The Judeo-Christian tradition carried this even further with the concept that God gave man dominion over nature and that man's job was to conquer and utilize it, a concept currently under strong criticism from the advocates of the ecology movement.