image of nature;"(Heracleitus) "artist's skill depicting visual objects." (Aristotle) Under that theory, the goal of an artist is to copy the objective natural world, and the best lifelike imitation would be the ultimate achievement in art. Therefore, the art is about studying the structure and the color pattern of natural objects; judging their physical existence in terms of quality,quantity and space. To draw a fish for the best imitation, it would have to pull the fish out of the water and place it in a basket in order to convey that feel of quality, quantity and space, even the smell. This is what they call a "motionless object." This theory of creative art is determined by the philosophy that fish and human are two separate entities, and the nature and the society are opposite worlds. This actually has been the philosophical and aesthetical base of western art for over 2000 years.On the other hand, Chinese philosophy and art structure is the unity of nature and human and integration of objects and
ego(subjects). To Chinese artists, I am the fish and the fish is me. If I paint a fish swimming care-free in the water, it is a way to express my own care-free state of mind. This was the same philosophy invoked by the Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zi in "The Autumn Water." Looking at fish by a pond with a friend, Zhuang Zi said to his friend, "The fish swimming in the water are so happy." The friend replied, "Not a fish yourself, how would you know?" "Not being me, how do you know that I don't know?" claimed Zhuang Zi. The philosophy based on Confucious and Taoist theory to speak one's mind and convey one's emotion through an object, is the philosophical and aesthetical base of Chinese traditional art, and a technique in freehand art work. Different from the theory of Western art, Chinese paintings are generally focused on bringing out the theme of the objects regardless of being a realistic painting or a freehand brushwork.