内经图
Neijing Tu · The inner landscape
Mountains and waterways form a symbolic landscape within the body.
LOOKING CLOSERA form, a story,
A form, a story,
a way of seeing.
The Neijing Tu presents an inner landscape: mountains, waterways and human figures express ideas of Daoist self-cultivation in symbolic form. The body becomes a place where the language of nature and the language of religious practice meet.
The image is best approached as a religious and visual composition, rather than an anatomical chart or medical guide. Its dense arrangement rewards slow looking, from the mountainous upper forms to the waterways and small figures below.
Details to notice
- Trace the landscape imagery within the overall human form.
- Look for the small figures, watercourses and text woven through the composition.
Further reading
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