On Traditional Concept of Five Orientations and Its Influence on Spatial Thought in Chinese Painting

Painting is a kind of art concerning space. Different spatial concepts will lead to different orientation of spatial art. The earliest spatial concept found in literature in China is undoubtedly the concept concerning five orientations which already existed in about Yinshang Dynasty. Such concept has laid the foundation on which the spatial thought in Chinese philosophy attached importance to the personal feeling about space and universal concept was closely related to the social space. This makes the Chinese painting art step into orientation which valued concept and belittled the form from the very beginning.