Visualizing the Invisible Body: Redefining Shanshui and the Human Body in the Daoist Context

Abstract

This paper addresses the “invisible body in shanshui paintings” by redefining the correlation between shanshui and the human body in the Daoist context. I argue that the human body is not invisible in shanshui painting—it is ever-present through the agency of the shanshui. The correlation will be unpacked in two aspects. Firstly, shanshui is ontologically connected and shares a “corporeal” affinity with the bodies of human beings. Secondly and more importantly, with the development of inner alchemy (neidan 內丹), shanshui and the human body are identified as representative of one another. Shanshui becomes the body through the lens of the unique concept of neijing 內景 (inner landscape). As the powerful and redemptive mediation between human beings and the Dao, shanshui reveals not only the inner body but also the mechanism of inner energies. Furthermore, it offers a solution to solve the Daoist anxiety over the body’s physical limitations by breaking down the constant confrontation and opposition between the “I” and the cosmos and reactivating one’s primordial dependency on nature. Shanshui painting, in this vein, transcends the mundane body and provides access to the sacred truth and reality of the Dao.