De Xin Ying Shou [Heart and Hand in Accord]' and #Zhou You Dong XI [travelling round the East and West]'

The research was carried out in two parts. Part I investigated the Chinese culturophilosophical thoughts (Xin [Heart])-exploring the Chinese cultural thought through the Chinese brush and the Principle of Yin Yang [Negative-Positive], and surveying the Chinese philosophical thought through the doctrines and concepts of Taoism, Confucianism and Chan-ism [Zen Buddhism]. It then examined the principles of Chinese painting (Shou [Hand])-probing into Xie He's Liu Fa [The Six Canons], their reinterpretation and modification, and Shitao's Principle of Yihua [One-Stroke]. (The translation of early Chinese philosophical texts and painting treatises in Part I is a secondary contribution of the thesis. ) Using Part I as a basis, Part 11 looked into the Chinese landscape painting (Dong [East]) and European female-nude painting (Xi [West])-an art historical analysis leading to a discussion of the landscapes of Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) and female nudes of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). It finally dealt with the comparison of Zhang's landscapes and Picasso's female nudes-a comparative scrutiny of two landscapes of Zhang and two female nudes of Picasso. (The comparison is one of the pioneer contributions to the area of comparative inquiry into twentieth-century Chinese painting and European painting. ) The result of the whole research is now presented by this thesis-divided into an introduction, eight chapters and a conclusion. The findings: (1) made clear the previously obscure and ambiguous ideas of the traditional Chinese aesthetics embodied in Chinese painting; (2) showed that both the Chinese culturo-philosophical thoughts and traditional painting principles continue to be revealed in Zhang's paintings; (3) verified that the paintings of Zhang and Picasso share many interesting common points of reference; and (4) offered a reassessment of Zhang's landscapes, and a fresh look at Picasso's female nudes from a cross-cultural perspective