文：中国的形式美 Pattern: The Beauty of Form

中国古代美学谈形式美，以‘形’和‘文’为主。
文有美丽、规律、结构，和文章、文学两种意思。这样，文就和美联系起来了。
许慎《说文解字》对‘文’如此解释：‘初作书，盖依类象形，故谓之文。’
易经说：‘....观鸟兽之文.... 文，错画也。象交文。’
所以，文就是以坐标、花样来代表类似的东西。它也就是纹，斑纹、线条、形状。
作为形状，它的特征就是变化。清朝叶燮在‘原诗’这就有很好的描述：‘天地之大文，风云雨雷，变化不测，不可端倪，天地之至神也，即至文也。’
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The ancient Chinese used words like Shape (xing) and Pattern (wen) in their discussions of artistic form. Wen in Chinese means both beautiful/regular pattern/structure and literature. It is when the word is used to mean pattern that it is associated with the meaning of beauty.
In the first Chinese dictionary Shuo wen jie zi (說文解字) complied by Xu Shen 許慎 in around 100 AD, it said that when ‘the Chinese characters were first invented, it seems that the forms were copied according to their resemblances that they were called ‘patterns’.’
Yijing says that ‘…. observed the markings on birds and animals…. Wen consists of intersecting lines. Its graph is like an intersecting pattern.’
Wen is therefore representing the likeness of things through written ‘graphs’ or ‘pattern’. It is also means wen 纹, i.e. stripes, lines and figures.
As a pattern, it possesses a unique characteristic of transformation. This continuous transformation was noted by Ye Xie (1627-1703) who said that ‘within Heaven and Earth the greatest forms of pattern (wen) are the wind and clouds, rains and the thunder. Their mutations and transformations cannot be fathomed and have neither limit nor boundary; they are the highest manifestation of spirit (shen) in the universe and the perfection of wen.’