Shaoying, Weng. The Beauty of Guilin: Selected Works of Photographic Art of Mr. Weng Shaoying.

China Travel and Tourism Press, 1990. ISBN 7-5032-0654-3. Foreword by Yang Taiyang. French wraps with glossy illustrated covers, 84 pages. Serenely contemplative color landscapes taken in Guilin, China.  [Guilin (Standard Zhuang: Gveilinz; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Wikipedia.)] Text and captions in English and Chinese. Fine.  

Weng Shaoying is a celebrated Chinese photographer and artist best known for his stunning landscape photography that merges traditional Chinese landscape aesthetics with modern photographic art. He gained widespread acclaim for his evocative visual monographs, most notably The Beauty of Guilin, which captures the dramatic karst mountains, misty rivers, and tranquil waters of Guilin with exceptional atmospheric depth and lyrical sensitivity. Through masterful composition, play of light, and a deep reverence for natural topography, Weng's photographs evoke the poetic qualities of classical ink-wash painting while retaining the crisp documentary fidelity of the photographic medium. His work serves as an important bridge in twentieth-century East Asian photography, celebrating the natural heritage of China and earning a lasting place in regional and international collections of fine art photography.

The Beauty of Guilin: Selected Works of Photographic Art of Mr. Weng Shaoying (published by China Travel and Tourism Press in 1990) is a serenely contemplative photographic monograph by Chinese photographer Weng Shaoying(温少瑛). Featuring a foreword by the prominent Chinese painter and art educator Yang Taiyang, the book is designed for an international audience with multilingual text and captions in Chinese, English, and Japanese.

The publication is celebrated as a definitive visual tribute to the legendary landscapes of Guilin, a region globally renowned for its dramatic karst topography.

Key Elements of the Monograph

• The Essence of Shanshui (Mountain and Water): Weng Shaoying’s work is deeply rooted in traditional Chinese aesthetic sensibilities. His color photography echoes classical Shanshui ink wash paintings, focusing heavily on the harmonious, almost spiritual relationship between towering mountains and fluid water systems.

• Chronicles of the Li River: A central focus of the collection is the Li River (Lijiang) and its surrounding ecosystem. The photographs trace the river as it weaves through Guilin and Yangshuo, capturing iconic vistas of isolated, needle-like limestone peaks rising sharply from flat plains.

• Atmospheric and Ethereal Light: The imagery relies heavily on natural, atmospheric elements to evoke a sense of timeless mysticism. Weng masterfully utilizes early morning mists, dense fog breaking over the water, dramatic sunsets, and mirror-like reflections on the river surface to give the landscapes an otherworldly, dreamlike quality.

• Cultural and Human Elements: While primarily a landscape study, the monograph includes traditional cultural motifs native to the region. It features quiet glimpses of local life, such as cormorant fishermen gliding on bamboo rafts and rural village architecture framed against the gargantuan karst backdrop.

Summary

The Beauty of Guilin is a masterfully composed photographic archive that transcends typical travel promotion. Through Weng Shaoying's patient and poetic lens, the book transforms regional topography into an evocative fine-art study, capturing the ethereal tranquility and timeless grandeur that has inspired Chinese artists for centuries.