The Spirit of Man in Asian Art

INTRODUCTION
In these lectures I propose to consider certain significant phases, certain pregnant moments, in the arts of the various countries of the continent of Asia.
I cannot of course attempt anything like a survey of the entire field; nor shall I approach
the subject from an archaeological or historical or technical point of view. Rather I wish to show, if I can, — and I think this is more consonant with the object of the Professorship with which I have been honoured, — how the spirit of man, whether in China or India, in Persia or Japan, has expressed through creative art its relation to the world and to the universe; to suggest the likenesses and contrasts between these arts and the arts of Western countries, the reactions of the arts of the various races of Asia
on each other, and the specific virtue in the contribution of each of them to the whole. Perhaps by the way we may be led to enquire into the nature of art itself.