Empty/Full

Through emptiness, man's heart can become the model or mirror for itself and the world, because in possessing emptiness and being identified with original emptiness, man finds himself at the source of images and forms. He grasps the rhythm of space and time, and he masters the laws of transformation.

from Empty and Full: The Language of Chinese Painting
by Francois Cheng



Like a furious lion clinging to a rock, or a thirst-ridden horse rushing to the spring, or a threatening storm, imminent, charges with thunderheads 
here am I, outside of reality, outside the world, concentrating, liberated ... That which is contained in my brush -- my emotions, my desires -- and which flouts tradition will not fail to shrug its shoulders at the connoisseurs. The latter will exclaim, 
Ah, but that doesn't look like anything!

Shih-t'ao
artist-monk, b. 1641

All things under heaven have their visible-invisible. The visible is the thing's exterior aspect, its yang; 
the invisible is its interior image, its yin. 
A yin, a yang -- that is the Tao. 
It is like a dragon coiling in midheaven. If it shows its naked entirety, without aura and without extension, with what mystery can it be enveloped? 
That is why a dragon always takes cover behind the clouds. Transporting the winds and rains, it soars amid the lightning bolts, wheeling and spinning -- superb! Now he causes his scales to glitter, now he gives a hint of his tail. The spectator, eyes gaping, can never encompass him with a glance. It is through its double aspect of visible-invisible that the dragon exercises its infinite power of 
fascination ...

Pu Yen-T'u