Chan painting has its origins in traditional Chinese painting and was greatly influenced by the Chan school of Chinese Buddhism. An artist in the Chan school of painting must be well-versed in both Chan practice and the creative art of painting. In this sense, Ven. Hiuwan (1912-2004) was an exemplary modern artist in the Chan school of painting.            

Ven. Hiuwan was a Dharma Master with interests in such diverse fields as education (especially what she called Enlightened Education), Chan meditation, Chan painting, calligraphy, Chinese literature, and Buddhist literature. In her early years in southern Guandong, Ven. Hiuwan received a college education, majoring in literature and art. She then studied art under the guidance of Mr. Jianfu Kao of the Lingnan School and was recognized with the title, Lingnan Distinguished Female Artist. She later traveled to many places, including Sichuan and Yunnan provinces  in China, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States, where she was invited to exhibit her art work. She also studied art in India, where she was influenced by the Buddha images in mural paintings at the Ajanta Caves. In 1958, she left the family life and took ordination from Ven. Tanxu of the Tientai School. With that, she delved further into the world of Buddhism, advocating Prajna Chan, a school of Chan that pointed directly to the enlightened mind of the Buddha. In this way, her whole life was dedicated to Chan practice.

Because of her dedication to art and her continuous, conscientious practice of painting throughout her life, Ven. Huiwan was able to depict her own experience of Confucian and Buddhist thought and practice through her art. Her Chan paintings convey her Chan practice and the essence of enlightenment. Her creative work therefore points to something beyond the images themselves.            

A prominent characteristic of Ven. Huiwan’s paintings is her clarity of purpose, which is to convey her life philosophy through art. In the early stage of her career, the central themes of her paintings were generally taken from poetry of the Tang and Sung Dynasties. Later, she tended to use more Buddhist epigrams, poems of Chan masters, and Chan itself as the subject of her paintings. Taking Chan as the theme of a painting invited viewers to meditate on the core message of Chan. Since the ultimate concern of Chan is enlightenment, her painting made it possible to understand Chan practice and get a glimpse of enlightenment.             

In addition to her Chan practice and painting, Ven. Hiuwan wrote many essays on the theory of Chan and the practice of Chan painting. These essays have been compiled into several volumes, including Reflections of Chan, Chan Paintings, Chan Words, Chan Poems, Chan Masters, and Essays on Buddhist Art. She was therefore not only a Chan practitioner and a Chan painter, but also a commentator on the art of Chan painting. In this essay, I will discuss her ideas on Chan painting and illustrate them through some of her masterpieces, demonstrating the contrast between Chan theory and practice.