姬子先生的画室曾一度在上苑，我们常有接触。上苑艺术家工作室开放展时我曾去他画室看画，那时他的山水画已经探索墨道山水多年，显露出一些大的气象，但手法上仍然属于传统。但近两年姬子先生的画风突变，真让我刮目相看。先生已是近70的年龄了，在艺术上尚如此精进不懈，很是让我感慨。

　　姬子的新作主要体现在《墨道系列》和《构成系列》中。在这两个系列中，画家突破了山水画的传统格局和惯常手法，放弃了以往那种对物理时间秩序的遵循，完全进入自由调动时空的主观表现状态。在这种新的画面格局中，我们看到的已不是某处的山，某处的水，而是天地山川、日月星辰周流不息的万千变化。这就使画家把眼光放大到不仅只看某一处景，而是对“道”的观照。这样一来，姬子就把山水画的表现主题重新返回到山水画初始的原点上，即所谓“澄怀观道”。因为中国山水画的主题从一开始就不是在表现具体的一山一石，一隅一景，而是对“道”的观照。

　　早在《尚书》、《左传》、《周礼》等典籍中就曾记载原始社会末期我们的祖先已经有关于日、月、星、辰的描绘。到春秋战国时代，各种殿堂壁画中关于天地山川的描绘已十分普通。进入秦汉时期，与山水题材有关的史籍记载就更为具体，如《五岳真形图》、《云汉图》、《北风图》等，从画题上即不难推断绘画的内容或描绘的重点在山岳江河、日月风云等天地气象。到魏晋南北朝时期，有关山水画的理论已经形成，顾恺之的《画云台山记》、王微的《叙画》和宗炳的《画山水序》都有关于山水画的论述。在这些论着中不仅有对山水画气势的直接描述，更提出了山水画的美学纲领。可以说，自宗炳始，中国山水画以“观道”为目标的最高美学纲领已经确立。中国山水画的高起点，并不在于技法的完备，而在于对山水的审美意向一开始就确立在“观道”这个至高点上。如宗白华所说：“晋宋人欣赏山水，由实入虚，即实即虚，超入玄境……晋宋人欣赏自然，有'目送归鸿，手挥五弦'，超然玄远的意趣”。那个时代的文人高士与自然有着一种特别的亲和关系，宗炳就多次拒绝朝廷征召，“栖幽饮壑30年”，“西涉荆巫，南登衡岳”，“每游山水，往辄忘归”。中国山水画家这种超然玄远的审美意识正是在这样一种与自然通达、互化的人生实践之中建立起来的。

　　宗炳的美学观又来自老庄。他的“好山水，爱远游”、放弃功名利禄的人生实践和艺术实践，无疑都是庄学思想的体现。徐复观说：“庄子之道，从抽象去把握时，是哲学的、思辨的；从具象去把握时，是艺术的、生活的。”因此，“庄子所追求的道，与一个艺术家所呈现出的最高艺术精神，在本质是完全相同的。所不同的是：艺术家由此而成就艺术的作品，而庄子则由此而成就艺术的人生”。在宗炳，则是既成就了“艺术的人生”，也成就了“艺术的作品”。所以，他在《画山水序》中开宗明义地指出中国山水画正是发端于对“道”的观照。即所谓“圣人含道应物，贤者澄怀味象”。

　　姬子的新作正是以一个现代人的视角和手段，从多种角度表现出自然的万千气象，创造了一种雄浑壮伟、大气盘旋的“墨道山水”。特别是他那些融进了强烈色彩对比的作品，是一种更富有奇幻效果和宇宙意识的自然景观，是一个现代山水画家返回传统山水画“观道”原点后创造出来的新图式、新境界。

　　姬子先生老骥伏枥，衰年变法，使自己的艺术进入佳境，值得祝贺，这也是中国当代水墨之变的一种新迹象。

　　2009年4月27日于北京上苑

CROSSING SPACE AND TIME, TRAVERSING HEAVEN AND EARTH

On Jizi's Recent "Dao of Ink" Paintings

　　Jia Fangzhou

　　During the time that Jizi's art studio was located in Shangyuan,  we often came in contact with each other. When the artists' studios in Shangyuan held exhibitions, I went to his studio to see his paintings. At that time, Jizi had already been exploring "the Dao of Ink Landscapes" in his landscape paintings for many years and, although the paintings revealed some imposing appearances, nevertheless, the technique was still a traditional one. In the past two years, however, Jizi's painting style has had a breakthrough that really left me viewing his paintings with new eyes. Jizi is almost 70 years old, yet his diligence and tirelessness left an impression on me.

　　Jizi's new artworks are mainly reflected in "the Dao of Ink Series" and the "Construction Series." In these two series, the artist has broken through the traditional patterns and customary techniques of landscape painting. He has done away with abiding by the physical time order of the past, and completely entered a free shifting space-time state of subjective expression. In this new kind of painting pattern, what we see is not the mountains and streams of a certain place, but rather universal mountains and streams and heavenly bodies in their endless flow through a myriad of variations. This forces the artist to enlarge his vision so that he is not merely looking at one particular scene but has a perspective on the "Dao" instead. In this way, Jizi takes the subjective expression of landscape painting and once again returns landscape painting to its early origins, the so called "purifying the mind to glimpse the Dao."  From its earliest beginnings, the theme of Chinese landscape painting was not to depict a particular mountain or rock, a particular place or scene, but rather to provide a perspective on the "Dao."

　　Early on, such classics as The Book of History, The Zuo Zhuan, and The Rites of Zhou all recorded that, in the latter period of primitive society, our ancestors painted the sun, the moon, the stars, and celestial bodies. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, it was quite common to see paintings of heaven and earth and mountains and streams hanging on the walls of various types of palaces and temples. During the period of the Qin and Han Dynasties, the historical records were more specific about the themes of landscape paintings and, for example, make reference to the "Drawing of the True Shape of the Five Sacred Mountains,"  the "Drawing of the Milky Way,"  the "Drawing of the North Wind,"  and so on. From the themes of these paintings we can easily deduce that the paintings contained, and their focus depicted, such natural phenomena as mountains and rivers, the sun and the moon, the wind and clouds, and so on.

　　During the period of the Wei Jin and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, theories of landscape painting had already formed. Gu Kaizhi's Record of Painting Mt. Yuntai,  Wang Wei's Narration on Painting,  and Zong Bing's Preface to Landscape Painting  all were discourses on landscape painting. These discourses did not merely directly describe the grand manner of landscape painting, but rather they proposed guiding principles for the aesthetics of landscape painting. We can thus say that, beginning with Zong Bing, Chinese landscape painting had already taken as its objective "glimpsing the Dao," and that "glimpsing the Dao" was already established as the highest aesthetic guiding principle. Chinese landscape painting's high starting point was definitely not the perfection of technique but instead the aesthetic intent of landscape painting from the very beginning was established as "glimpsing the Dao," an extremely high starting point indeed.

　　As Zong Baihua (1897-1986) has said: "During the Jin Song period,  people appreciated mountains and streams, the paintings of which went from realistic to abstract, and then to both realistic and abstract, rising into a mysterious realm . . . During the Jin Song period, people appreciated nature, and they felt that nature had a mysterious and aloof charm as in the line 'your eyes see the wild geese returning while your fingers strum the five stringed Qin.'"  The literati and worthies of that period had a special affinity for nature. Zong Bing, for example, many times refused requests from the Imperial Court to serve as an official, and described his life as: "Perching in valleys and drinking from gullies for thirty years," and: "In the west, I walked through thorns to visit a shaman; in the south, I climbed Mt. Heng," and again: "Every time I went roaming among the mountains and rivers, I would always forget to return."  Chinese landscape artists established this type of transcendent and aloof aesthetic awareness in the midst of practicing the kind of life that is sensitive to nature and conforms to nature.

　　The aesthetic views of Zong Bing derive from Laozi and Zhuangzi. Zong Bing's practice of life and art in which he forwent fortune and fame for a "fondness for mountains and streams and love of roaming afar" is without doubt the embodiment of Zhuangzi's philosophy. As Xu Fuguan  has said: "Zhuangzi's "Dao" grasps time as something abstract, and hence is philosophical and speculative; grasping time as something concrete is artistic and existential." For this reason, "The 'Dao' Zhuangzi seeks and the highest artistic spirit an artist can render are in essence completely the same. What is different is that an artist as a result succeeds in works of art, but Zhuangzi as a result succeeds in the art of life." Zong Bing, however, succeeded both in "the art of life" and also in "works of art." Zong Bing, therefore, in his Preface to Landscape Painting, stated explicitly that Chinese landscape painting commenced with contemplation of the "Dao," and that is what is meant by "the sage responds to things by cherishing the Dao; worthies purify their minds to glimpse the Dao."

　　Jizi's new works truly have the perspective and methods of a modern person. They show from a variety of aspects the myriad of natural scenes, creating the vigorous magnificence and spiraling atmospherics of the "Dao of Ink Landscapes." This is especially true of those works that merge and contrast strong colors. These works are even richer in illusions and natural landscapes that show an awareness of the universe. Jizi, a modern landscape painter, after he had returned to "glimpsing the Dao" that is the origin of traditional landscape painting, created these new drawings and new artistic realms.

　　Jizi is like an old steed who still wants to race: he has changed his method in his later years and taken his art into a new realm; and for this he deserves congratulations. The "Dao of Ink Landscapes" are also a further indication of changes to China's contemporary paintings.

1.Shangyuan is an area in Beijing.
2.This is a Chan (Zen) Buddhist saying traditionally regarded as a statement of an aesthetic principle.
3.This painting was an early Daoist talisman thought to ward of evil and invite fortune.
4.A painting done by Liu Bao (147-167) of the Han Dynasty that captured the energy and heat of the Milky Way so well that viewers reputedly perspired.
5.Also by the Liu Bao mentioned above. This “Painting of the North Wind” captured the cold, gusty North Wind so well that viewers reputedly shivered.
6.Gu Kaizhi (348-409) was a famous poet and artist.
7.Wang Wei (415-453), a famous poet and artist of the Southern and Northern Dynasties period, wrote the “Narration on Painting” circa 440.
8.Zong Bing (375-443) was a Southern Dynasty painter and scholar.
9.The Jin Dynasty lasted from 265 to 420.
10.The line quoted by Zong Baihua is from a poem by the Wei Dynasty poet, thinker, and musician Ji Kang (223-263).
11.These quotes from by Zong Bing describe the influence of Daoist philosophy on his life.
12.Xu Fuguan (1902-1982), a Chinese intellectual and thinker who made notable contributions to Confucian studies, is a leading member of New Confucianism, a movement attributed to Xu’s teacher and mentor Xiong Shili (1885-1968).
 

　　27 April 2009, Shangyuan, Beijing

　　Translated by E.F. Connelly, PhD