Concept information
Preferred term
one-stroke
Definition
- A foundational art‑philosophical concept and brushwork principle in the painting theory of the Qing‑dynasty artist Shitao. Literally meaning “one stroke,” it refers not just to a single brush stroke but to a primordial, unified act of creation in painting—an intuitive, continuous expression that embodies both the microcosm of the individual mark and the macrocosm of the entire composition. For Shitao, all diverse forms in a painting—mountains, trees, figures— “emerge from and are bound together in this ‘one stroke’”, reflecting a holistic unity and the artist’s creative spirit rather than mere technical multiplication of lines. In this sense, yihua signifies both the origin and the totality of pictorial expression: the one contains the many, and the many arise from the one through the artist’s mind, body, and brush.
Alternative Terms
yihua
Chinese
Source
Belongs to group
In other languages
-
yihua
Chinese
URI
http://w3id.org/write/thesaurus/one_stroke
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