Teaching how to draw leaves,
from the Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting,
After the teaching materials of the Chinese painter Li Liufang (1575-1629),
and commissioned Wang Gai (1645-1707)
Reprinted in 1888
Woodblock print
© Lisa Sainsbury Library
Teaching how to draw leaves,
from the Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting,
After the teaching materials of the Chinese painter Li Liufang (1575-1629),
and commissioned Wang Gai (1645-1707)
Reprinted in 1888
Woodblock print
© Lisa Sainsbury Library
The kingdom of God is a mustard seed growing into the biggest shrub of all
Mark 4:26-34
Jesus said to the crowds: ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man throws seed on the land. Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know. Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the crop is ready, he loses no time: he starts to reap because the harvest has come.’
He also said, ‘What can we say the kingdom of God is like? What parable can we find for it? It is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing in the soil is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.’
Using many parables like these, he spoke the word to them, so far as they were capable of understanding it. He would not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were alone.
Reflection on the Chinese Painting Manual
Our artwork is showing a page from the ‘Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden’, a printed manual of Chinese painting compiled during the early Qing Dynasty (1636–1912). The title of the book comes from the mansion known as Jieziyuan or the Mustard Seed Garden owned by the novelist Li Yu (1611-1688). They were important books showing the art of drawing, and were reprinted over and over in China and Japan. The manual was a major tool in the training of artists. The manual would take the pupil from drawing a very simple leaf (as illustrated), towards being able to paint a highly detailed tree and eventually depicting filly coloured, highly detailed landscape gardens.
These various stages that the pupil would be taken through, is exactly what Jesus is describing in our Gospel reading today. A mustard seed has a simple start, and when we plant it well and nurture it well, then that seed will grow and blossom into a complex but yet beautiful tree. Our spiritual lives can start with a very simple prayer or devotion, and grow into something wonderfully intricate, rich and beautiful too.
Jesus is saying that when we sow seeds of faith, hope and love around us, we may not always see if the seeds start growing or not, but more is always happening than we realise: God is at work and he will put things in bloom!
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With God’s Grace, as a small child a seed of faith is sown. Adolescence, pursuits with peers, vocational study, jobs may cause us to leave that seed untended. Yet, when watered and fed with renewed faith in later life it is always there to be reawakened to flourish. May we always scatter many seeds even if we think the ground is arid.
Estoy ligado a la huerta desde mi niñez y mis ancestros. Una maravilla silenciosa como lo es el tiempo lunar y toda la Creación. Actualmente mi segunda actividad es el jardín y unas minúsculas huertas en masetas generalmente improvisadas. La dificultad para obtener frutos es mayúscula: agua suficiente, aire sin viento, tierra con nutrientes adecuadas, evitación de hormigas, pájaros y paso de perros y las manitos de niños vecinos, el sol adecuado, que no granizo… las siete moradas parecen más !
Jesús enseña de una manera sencilla y clara . Así como nos maravillamos viendo que una simple semilla crece poco a poco hasta llegar a dar fruto: Así nos dice Jesús es el reino de Dios. Nos toca ayudar llevando la Palabra a todos los que podamos y Dios se encarga de darle vida en la persona.
Me gusta el arte chino, creo que es simbolico, sencillo y armonioso.
The main thing that I come away with after reflection on the reading and the artwork is patience. I need to crawl before I learn how to walk. I enjoy drawing but I tend to lose patience with myself. The lesson on learning to draw the leaf first and then the bush is something that I need to ponder.
Al finalizar del Evangelio hay una expresión muy sugestiva que despliega una realidad grande, y es aquella en la que se dice que nuestro Señor Jesús, se acomodaba al entender de las personas. Sin duda alguna es una capacidad de sencillez que trasluce la predicación del Evangelio; en definitiva, el Señor simplificó las cosas para que muchos pudiesen acceder a la propuesta del Reino.
Algo así es lo que nosotros percibimos en este portal Christian Art, donde la palabra del Reino nos llega de una manera sencilla y profunda adaptada a nuestro entender.
When I was a boy my mother showed me how she was helping poor children in Portugal by sending money to some kind nuns who were looking after them. I didn’t think much of it at the time but now looking back I see that she was planting a seed in me. I spend some of my retirement time raising money for Mary’s Meals which is helping poor children today. So a seed can grow…..
You had a wise Mother, Chazbo! Bless her and you for your work for Mary’s Meals.
thank you Rya!
I can still smell the scent of these old pages from childhood memories. But the light of Christ beautifies them much more. This comes as a surprise to me.
So much to reflect on here, Patrick.
God’s work is invisible to us. We plant these tiny seeds unaware of what is going on in the soil for a long time.
Then the ending about only speaking to people in parables- it seems that people would have understood this more easily than straight-talk, which may be true now as it was then. We only understand through reflection it seems, than direct conversion?
It is the disciples who get the explanations later, in what must have been awesome and intimate moments with Jesus.
This is where prayer leads, I think.
Thank you… good reflection.
Excellent comment – many thanks
Thanks for your excellent comment. I was told once that in order to better understand the Bible, I should try to think and look at things more like a Middle Easterner rather than a Westerner. As Westerners we tend to take things too literally.