When Mi Fu 米〓 discusses the "even and bland" (pingdan 平淡) and the "heavenly and true" (tianzhen 天眞) in works such as the Shushi 書史, Huashi 畫史, Baopu yingguang ji 寶晋英光集, and Haiyue mingyan 海岳名言, his discussion is underpinned by a negative, prejudiced, and sharpened consciousness seeking to eliminate the "vulgar" or "common" (su 俗). Ouyang Xiu 歐陽脩 wrote of the poetry of Mei Yaochen 梅堯臣 that he set out from the even and bland, brought out profundity and breadth, and achieved the odd and crafted, while Su Shi 蘇軾 wrote that when writing a poem, one produces new meanings through classical allusions and creates the elegant by means of the vulgar. These writers possessed a wholesomeness that encompasses even that which seems to run counter to the "even and bland" or embraces the "vulgar" and sublimates it to the elegant in an attempt to achieve an organic unity, and they did not develop vehement critiques that were simply sharply focused on the "non-vulgar." This is a major difference even though, like Mi Fu, they used the same terms "even and bland" and "heavenly and true" to express aesthetic ideas. the same terms "even and bland" and "heavenly and true" to express aesthetic ideas.
  In this article, I discuss the terms pingdan and tianzhen as used in the poetry, prose, and treatises on poetry by Ouyang Xiu, Mei Yaochen, Su Shi, etc., and in "poetry talks" such as the Canghai shihua 藏海詩話, which were popular during the Song. I also consider the awareness of the "even and bland" and the "heavenly and true" in Mi Fu's writings on painting and calligraphy and discuss what lies at the basis of this awareness from the perspective of the background circumstances at the time.
  The background factors underlying Mi Fu's awareness when he spoke of the "even and bland" and the "heavenly and true" were wide-ranging. The biggest direct factors were his commenting from a position of leadership as a teacher of calligraphy and painting, his abhorrence of the inundation of calligraphic fonts by Yan Liu'ou 顔柳歐 associated with the popularity of movable-type printing, his criticism of the deluge of forgeries from his position as a calligrapher, a connoisseur, and a collector, and his experience in making rubbings and copies faithful to the originals in his capacity as someone who prided himself in being a skilled copyist.

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On the basis of natural object, such as mountains, rocks, streams, fields and woods, the landscape paintings of the Eastern Asia succeeded to discover their own space construction in perspective. The auther attempts to explain this from the viewpoint of "human eyesight".

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We have been developing the new Fresnel lens screen suitable for a wide-angle projection optics. It fundamentally consists of a refraction and a total internal reflection prism. In this paper, we summarize the design concept of hybrid Fresnel lens screen and expected performance for ultra-thin rear projector.

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Something of Chinese theories of art appreciation can be comprehended from the literature concerning painting. There are the mentions of seals and signatures, types of paper and silk for paintings, and viewpoints for judging paintings, calligraphies and other art abjects. Essentially the areas of aesthetic appreciation and concern can be classified into five groups. These are (1) the knowledge of materials, (2) the connoisseurship of materials, (3) the critical evaluation of artists, (4) the aesthetic appraisal for artistic change over time, and (5) the commentary on the essential quality of painting. As these points are often subtle and complicated, it is not easy to comprehend the depth of their meaning. However, by taking up one point at a time, it is possible to discover interesting transitions in attitudes toward art. Generally, from the Six Dynasties to the Tang, the appreciation of paintings did not occupy a high position in the liberal arts. In the Song, as paintings came to be highly estimated among the literati, the attitude of artistic appreciation in one's private life became popular. From the Yuan to the Ming, the appreciation of paintings was included as part of the basic aesthetic concerns in the life of the literati. But in the Qing, individual aesthetic refinement declined and was replaced by a more hardened, scientific approach to the appreciation of objects. It is fundamental for studying art history to understand these phases of transition.

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This research shows the importance of common image as an element of landscape study. To illustrate this, the common image of Shinsenkyo as depicted in Sansui-ga art has been studied. It was found that when subjects viewed Sansui-ga art, or a Chinese garden based on Shinsenkyo, they imagined themselves within the landscape ; they constantly searched for Shinsenkyo within the landscape ; and their impression of the landscape grown over time.

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The shifting of the Chinese cultural centre had always corresponded to the movement of the economic core. The southward shift of the Chinese cultural centre was undoubtedly attributed to the external force exerted by the northern nomadic tribes who launched intermittent invasions of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River; but the favourable water and heat conditions of the south also produced quite an attractive force conducive to the southward shifting of the economic core and cultural centre. Moreover, this attractive force had always existed and was not intermittent. Although it might be said that there were essentially three periods of historical turmoil brought about by the northern tribes' invasion which forced the Chinese to move southwards namely, (1) Tsin's flight to the South, 317; (2) An-Shih rebellion of the Tang Dynasty 755-760 and (3) The collapse of the Northern Sung, 1127; yet earlier on toward the end of western Han and Eastern Han, the turbulence in the lower and middle Yellew River had already raised the surge of southward migration of the Han people. In the same way, the later Mongol's southward invasion had also caused serious damage to the land capacity of the North. Chinese rich historical records are full of such narratives. In the past, scholars studying this problem, including Japanese suholars of Chinese History, had always selected suitable narratives from historical materials, then they wove them together, annotated and elaborated them to form theses or monographs. This is comparatively easy, but could not accurately and explicitly explain the truth. I have now tried another approach to tackle this subject. Firstly, I selected the best historical records to compile pertinent specific maps showing, for example, distribution of population and agriculture, birth-places of various representative personages・・・poets, scholars and prime ministers; and then analyse the process and causes of the southward shifting of the Chinese cultural centre basing on the facts revealed by the maps. I also cite historical records but they are used mainly to supplement explanation or to support argument. The focus of population distribution frequently coincided with the centre of culture. In the middle of the Han dynasty or A.D.2, China had already very complete population statistics. According to these statistics, the population in the south of Yangtze accounted for less than 5 per cent of the country's total. By the time of the Sung dynasty, the population became evenly distributed between north and south, while the distribution of personages also tended to be equal. By the time of the Ming dynasty, the population waq quite densely distributed in the Yangtze delta, while the personages were also located in the same place. The accompanying maps reveal this fact when they are studied together. With text alone, it would be impossible to show this so clearly.

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