【中譯英】 獨木橋上的行者

(書畫大家西丁先生又一畫冊即將付梓。現不揣固陋，將孟德潤先生一篇藝評譯為英文，以為賀。

-- 舒嘯識於2018年1月)

 

獨木橋上的行者

 

A Traveler on Single-Log Bridges

 

孟德潤 文 / 舒嘯 英譯

 

寧過獨木橋，不走陽關道。獨木橋難行，但不會碰到別人；陽關道雖寬，但容易和別人"撞車"（作品和別人類同化）。故獨木橋乃藝術個性形成之康莊大道也。

Take the single-log bridges, rather than the open avenues. A single-log bridge is difficult, but no one else is there.  An open avenue is wide, but one can easily bump into someone else in the crowd (assimilation with other people’s works). Therefore, the single-log bridge is actually the grand road for formation of individuality.

"集百家之長"此法固然高超，但卻是人家的貨色。別人的精華，卻沒有自己的東西，再好也是人家的，而藝術之稀缺者，乃百家之無也。

The old saying goes: "Gather together all that is good".  Although this method is superb, but the outcome is the goods of others. The best of others is not your own, no matter how good it is. The scarcity of art is what all others do not have.

我的畫室取名“尋無齋”，“尋”就是尋找，“無”就是沒有，既然沒有你還尋什麽？！我說因為沒有我才去尋，尋到了，就有了嘛！

My studio is named "Xunwu Studio", "Xun" is to seek, and "Wu" means non-being.  If there is non-being, then what to seek?!  I would say that I seek exactly because that there is non-being.  Once found, then there is being!

一一"尋無齋"主人談藝錄

-- Master of “Xunwu Studio” (“Seeking Non-being Studio”) on art

 

獨木橋上行，自有獨木橋上的艱辛。無人相扶，無欄可依，橋窄苔滑，步步驚心。一澗跨過，未幾，又逢一溪；一根獨木走完，峰迴路轉，又遇數根。

Traveling on single-log bridges experiences the inevitable hardship built in the single-log bridges. There is no one offering helps. There is no railing to lean on. There are only narrow bridges and slippery moss, startling on every step.  Soon after crossing one stream, there is another. Few turns after traversing one single log, there are several more.

 獨木橋上行，亦有獨木橋上的情致。腳下泉水淙淙，頭上山嵐嫋嫋，耳畔空穀鳥鳴，胸間鬆風穿梭。山重水複，疑似無路，柳暗花明，又現一村。

Traveling on single-log bridges also presents appeals unique to the single-log bridges. There are gurgling springs beneath the feet, curling mountain mists above the head, the singing of the birds over the empty valley in the ears, and the wind through pine forest on the chest.  Mountains multiply and streams double back, I doubt there is even a road; Willows cluster darkly, blossoms shine, another village ahead.

這是西丁先生心中的一片獨特風景。

This is a unique landscape in Mr. Xiding's mind.

這是西丁先生藝術創造的一條獨特路徑。

This is a unique path of Mr. Xiding's artistic creation.

 

■為藝之道

■  The Way of Art

西丁是位智者，對藝術規律有著深刻的認識，他將自己的藝術主張與實踐用兩個字來概括：尋無，並將畫室命名為"尋無齋"。大道至簡，最本質的東西，最單純、最精粹。老子曰：“有無相生”。有與無，相互對立，相互依存，相對相成，相反相生。就藝術創造而言，尋有，陳陳相因，有衰而無；尋無，獨辟蹊徑，無中生有。十五年前，筆者曾評述過畫家的藝術觀點：“無而又尋，豈不矛盾？然尋無齋主人認為：尋無，尋求已有作品之無也。尋百家之有，取百家之長，固然重要，但隻能是研習繪畫的一種手段，而非終極目的。否則，前人作品，他人作品，特別是那些非常優秀的作品，對一個以繪事為業的人往往是一種巨大的誘惑，在品味讚賞之時，不自覺地會向其靠攏，對其仿效，若失去藝術上的清醒，好的東西也會成為陷阱，致使追慕者成為俘虜，而失卻藝術探索與創造的主動性。創作是創造而非製造，尋求前人作品、他人作品中所無的東西，就是覓求藝術的原創性，這是藝術的生命。”如何覓求他人之無，如何於無中生有，畫家為自己規劃出了一條路徑：寧過獨木橋，不走陽關道。車水馬龍的通衢難免撞車；熙來攘往的鬧市難避踐履；過獨木橋者，雖然孤獨而艱辛，但才智卻可得到激發；走陽關道者，雖然熱鬧而輕鬆，但才智卻被慵懶幽閉。尋無齋主人拒絕一切誘惑，破除一切積習，心無旁鶩，潛心研究，不從眾，不媚俗，情、意、象、趣、筆、墨務求有新意。

Xiding is a man of wisdom and has a profound understanding of the way of art. He summarized his artistic ideas and practice as: seeking non-being, and named the studio "Xunwu Studio" – Seeking Non-Being Studio. The most fundamental truths, principles, and methodologies tend to be expressed in the simplest words.  The most essential is the simplest and most succinct. Lao Tzu said: "Being and non-being create each other". Being and non-being are mutually antagonistic, mutually dependent, mutually complementing, and mutually defining. In terms of artistic creation, to seek being is to stay in the same old groove, and for being to decline into non-being;  to seek non-being is to find a unique path, and for being to rise out of non-being.  Fifteen years ago, I commented on Xiding's artistic point of view: "non-being and seeking, don’t they contradict each other?" However, the master of “Xunwu Studio” considers that seeking non-being is to seek what existing works don't have.  Looking for what other artists have and learning from their strength are certainly important.  However, they can only be a method to learn painting, and not the ultimate goal.  Otherwise, the works of predecessors and others, especially the very best works, would often become great temptations.   While appreciating them, one would unconsciously move towards and imitate them. Without artistic awareness, good works can become traps, causing the followers to become captives and lose the initiatives for art exploration and creation.  Painting is creating, and not manufacturing.  To seek what the predecessors’ works and others’ works do not have is to seek the originality of art. This is the life of art.  How to seek what others don't have? How to generate being from non-being? Xiding has charted a path for himself: Take the difficult single-log bridges, rather than the open avenues. People inevitably crash into each other at busy thoroughfares, or step on other people in the bustling downtowns.  Traversing single-log bridges, although lonely and difficult, can stimulate wisdom. Walking on open avenues, though lively and relaxed, could shut close talents. The master of “Xunwu Studio” refuses all temptations, cleanses all deep rooted habits, and devotes himself to study and explore. He does not blindly follow the crowd, nor play to the gallery.  He seeks new meanings in passions, thoughts, images, interests, brushes, and inks.

畫家西丁是獨木橋上踽踽而前的行者。獨木橋上行，孜孜矻矻，尋尋覓覓，求索到了什麽？尋獲到了幾許？概而述之：傳神之象，詩意之境，明徹之理，盎然之趣，天巧之構，共生之作，美學之思。犖犖大端，有其七焉。

Artist Xiding is a solitary traveler on single-log bridges. Traversing the single-log bridges, diligently and assiduously searching.  What has he sought?  What has he found?  I’d summarized as: vivid imagery, poetic realm, limpid reason, exuberant delight, ingenious structure, symbiotic works, and aesthetic thoughts.  These are the seven major points.

 

■傳神之象

■ Vivid Imagery

在中國傳統繪畫藝術中，潑墨寫意人物的創作無疑是一項極限挑戰，是對畫者素養、功力的嚴峻考驗。因之，參與此項極限挑戰的畫家屈指可數，繪畫史上留傳下來的經典之作可謂寥寥。畫史載，潑墨人物肇始於五代畫家石恪，相傳現藏於日本東京博物館之《二祖調心圖》二幅為其所作。其中一幅描繪高僧豐幹伏倚虎背而臥，身下之虎溫順如大貓。表現了高僧調心師禪，修行深厚，法力無邊。畫麵逸筆縱橫，水墨淋漓，達到了高妙的藝術境界。石恪的畫法，簡化了筆法，發揮了水墨的效果，成減筆畫法之開山祖。至南宋，梁楷深受石恪減筆畫法之影響，其傳世之作《潑墨仙人圖》，筆墨精練到不能再減，而將爛醉如泥，憨態可掬的仙人神態表現得維妙維肖，淋漓盡致。看似信手塗抹，實則其來不易，胸之無逸氣，手之無逸筆，豈可為乎？石恪、梁楷以降，潑墨之法用於山水、花鳥的大家多多，但長於潑墨人物的畫者依然寥寥。時至當代，誌於此藝者漸多，就筆者目力所及，影響較大者當數楊之光、李世南、彭先誠諸家。其取材，楊重於今時；李、彭偏於古代。李、彭二人中，李多寫文人士子，彭多畫麗人駿馬。其畫風，楊趨寫實；李、彭而好意筆。其筆墨，楊融水彩畫法，清麗明快，凝練而豐富；李、彭率性而為，淋漓酣暢，放達不羈，尤以李之為最。就西丁而言，取材、畫風近於李。著意於高士哲人、詩聖文豪、樵翁漁父，村童野老的刻畫；措意於“情於景匯，意於象通”之寫意表達。異於李者，似更刻意於情景的構設與意境的營造，而筆墨的把握上似更重節奏與節製，而不似李的恣肆霸悍，率意無羈。潑墨寫意，看似“得來全不費功夫”，豈知“踏破鐵鞋無覓處”，胸之無逸氣，手之無逸筆，是難以駕馭的。西丁知難而為，在“尋無”之途上，巧思獨運，妙筆傳神，塑造出了惟肖惟妙，意趣天成的諸多人物形象。

In the art of traditional Chinese painting, the creation of splash-ink freehand figures is undoubtedly an extreme challenge, and a severe test of the artist's accomplishment and skills. Therefore, there have been very few artists who participated in this extreme challenge, and a limited number of classic pieces that survived in the history of painting. Historical records indicate that splash-ink figure painting started with Shi Ke of the Five Dynasties period. According to legend, the two paintings of "Two Ancestors", currently in the collection of Museum of Tokyo, Japan, are his works. One of paintings portrays the eminent monk Feng Gan leaning over on the back of a tiger. Under his body, the tiger is gentle and obedient like a big cat. This shows the eminent monk’s spiritual study of Zen, profound cultivation, and boundless power. The appearance of the painting was painted impassioned and with great ease, reaching a wonderful artistic realm. Shi Ke's painting method simplified the brushwork, gave free rein to the effect of the ink, and became the founder of reduced-brushwork painting method. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Liang Kai was greatly influenced by Shi Ke’s reduced-brushwork. His “Splash-ink Painting of the Immortals” is a treasure handed down in the history.  In the painting, his brushwork was refined and reduced to the extreme. However, the drunken and cuddly demeanors of the immortals were demonstrated lifelike and vividly.  Seemingly careless smears, but actually very hard-earned.  This can only be achieved with excelling spirit and excelling brushwork.  Since Shi Ke and Liang Kai, there have been many masters applying splash-ink method in landscapes, birds and flowers, but very few adept in splash-ink figures. Today, gradually, more and more are interested in this method. As far as I could see, the more influential among them are Yang Zhiguang, Li Shinan, and Peng Xiancheng.  Yang chooses mainly modern people as his subjects, while Li and Peng painted more figures from ancient times. Between Li and Peng, Li manly painted literati, and Peng more beauties and horses. As for styles, Yang tends to be realistic while Li and Peng prefer freehand. For technics, Yang fuses watercolor method, elegant and lively, concise and rich, while Li and Peng are unreserved, heartily and lively, free and unbounded, and especially Li. As for Xiding, his subjects and style are close to Li’s.  He focuses on portraying eminent and wise literati, famous poets and writers, woodcutters and fishermen, village children and elderlies, emphasizing the expression of “the combination of passions and views, and the fusion of meanings and imagery”. Different from Li, Xiding seems more deliberate in the construction of the scene and the creation of artistic realm, with more rhythm and restraint in his control of the brush and ink, rather than Li's unbridled blunt force and unbounded straightforwardness.  Splash-ink freehand could seem to be effortlessly achievable, but actually has to be "sought far and wide". Without excelling spirit and excelling brushwork, it is difficult to manage.  Xiding proceeds, fully aware of the difficulties. On the way of "seeking non-being", Xiding, with ingenious design and magical brushwork, has created vivid and delightful images of many figures.

試舉一例，看看西丁在塑造人物形象上是如何巧思獨運，不蹈別人窠臼。清詩人厲鶚有一贈友之作：“相見亦無事，別後常憶君。春風縱有情，桃花難再尋。”還有兩個版本，詩中第二句，一為“不來常憶君”，一為“不來惚憶君”。這一作品道出了友人之間的眷念之情。前兩句為敘事，直述思念友人的悵惘，但這種惆悵的意緒不是具體之物，是隻可意會難以言傳的，朦朦朧朧，縹縹緲緲，難以把握。這時，詩人就會調動他心靈的眼睛，即“靈視”，在想象的世界中尋找能與這朦朧縹緲的意緒相對應的物象，經過一番折騰，詩人終於找到與之相匹配的對應物，就是“春風縱有情，桃花難再尋。"零落的春花是表達惆悵之意的象。以上是詩人寫詩，那麽畫家要將詩歌轉換為繪畫該怎麽辦?繪畫是視覺藝術，隻能在有限的二維空間裏捕捉典型形象的瞬間，將之固定在畫麵上。它不可能像語言藝術去敘述那朦朧縹緲的思緒，隻能捕捉那些能代表這些思緒的具體形象。也就是說畫“相見亦無事，別後常憶君”這兩句不好畫，那另一途，就是畫“春風縱有情，桃花難再尋”這個表意的象了。最後出現在畫家筆下的畫麵是個什麽樣子呢？我想大概如此：遠景，一條似有似無的天際線，天際線上一抹遠山；中景，茫茫水麵，飄著一兩點遠帆；近景，一詩人佇立岸邊，遙望天際若有所思，身旁一樹桃花，花瓣正隨風飄散。麵對此景，絲絲悵惘，縷縷離愁，悄然而生。但是，西丁並未落入詩人定下的這一窠臼。瑞士思想家阿米爾說：“一個心靈的境界可以是多片不同的風景。”西丁就是要尋另一片不同的風景。他不在有形有象的地方下功夫，卻獨辟蹊徑，另開新篇，瞄上了“相見亦無事”這麽一句。這句話中，有具體形象嗎？怎麽畫？給誰，誰怵！西丁是位拗相公，陽關大道偏不走，非要上這獨木橋，奈何！然而，西丁畫成了，而且畫得率性瀟灑，這就是他的《相見亦無事》。畫中兩位為思念所苦的老友，相見了，心安了，意定了，一份掛牽了卻了，暖陽中，睡意自然而然不期而至。優雅、閑散中卻透出濃濃的真摯情誼。他用畫作改寫了厲鶚的後兩句，那麽厲作就成了：“相見亦無事，不來常憶君。座中相對眠，又夢對麵人。”這幅作品看起來畫得輕鬆自如，率性瀟灑，但細究其構思過程，我想也是頗費周章的。

An example demonstrates how Xiding portrays the figure imagery ingeniously and breaks free from conventions. Qing Dynasty poet Li E once wrote a poem for a friend: "For nothing we meet each other; after parting you are often on my mind. Although spring breeze empathizes; it is difficult to find peach flowers again". This poem has two other versions. One version of the second line is "often missing you when you did not come", and the third version is "suddenly missing you when you did not come". This work shows the longing feeling between friends. The first two sentences are narratives, and they are straightforward description of melancholy mood for missing a friend. However, this melancholy mood is not a concrete matter, and can only be sensed but not explained. Obscure, misty, and difficult to grasp. At this time, the poet would mobilize his mind's eyes, i.e. “vision", looking for something in the imaginary world that corresponds to this obscurity. After much deliberation, the poet finally found a matching correspondence: "although spring breeze empathizes; It is difficult to find peach flowers again".  Scattered spring flowers are the expressive imagery of melancholy meaning. This is how the poet composed poetry.  How, then, should a painter convert poetry to a painting? Painting is a visual art, with only a limited two-dimensional space to capture the typical image of the moment, and fix it on the paper. It cannot describe the hazy thoughts like language arts, but it can only capture the specific images that represent these thoughts. That is to say, it is not practical to paint a picture of "For nothing we meet each other; after parting you are often on my mind". Another way then is to paint an image of "Although spring breeze empathizes; It is difficult to find peach flowers again". What would the final picture that appears under an artist's hand look like? I would speculate as such: In the distance view, there is only a touch of remote mountains on the seemingly non existing skyline; in the middle view, one or two sails floating far away on the vast water; the close view is a poet standing on the shore, looking at the sky and deep in thoughts. Next to him, there is a peach tree, with petals drifting in the wind. In front of this scene, the melancholy mood and the strands of sorrow quietly arrive. However, Xiding did not fall into this stereotype set by the poet. Swiss thinker Henri-Frédéric Amiel said: "A spiritual realm can be multiple different landscapes." Xiding is looking for a different landscape. He did not labor at the tangible and the concrete, but explored a new path and opened a new chapter. He zoomed in on the first line “For nothing we meet each other”.  Is there a specific imagery in this sentence? How to paint?  It must be difficult for anyone!  Xiding is a willful gentleman. Rather than taking the broad open avenues, he embarked on single-log bridges. Oh well! However, Xiding did it, and painted with dashing elegance. The painting is his "For Nothing We Meet Each Other”. In the painting, the two old friends, very much missing each other, met and felt calm and peace of mind. Now the worries are gone, and drowsiness naturally and unexpectedly arrives under the warm sun. Elegant, idle but revealing a deep and sincere friendship. He thus rewrote the latter two lines of Li E’s poem with this painting: "For nothing we meet each other; after parting you are often on my mind. Dozing off while face to face we sit; In dreams still seeing the one sitting opposite”.  The painting appears to be relaxed, free, and elegant.  However, upon in-depth study of its conceptual process, I think it spared no effort.

其一，“相見亦無事”，這麽一句無形象可言的敘事之語，如何化為可視可感的形象，這得下番功夫。試想想，兩個老友，分別之後隻是想念掛牽，並無什麽事情需要處理，見麵之後，問候問候，寒喧寒喧。那麽兩個老頭聚在一起還會幹些甚麽？為此，西丁定會閉目冥思，給他們一個合適的發落。下棋？彈琴？吟詩？看書？寫字？作畫？好像這麽多都不是個合適的表意之象，若如此，那還不成了“相見亦有事”乎？想來想去，毫無頭緒，心煩意躁，坐臥不寧。忽然，心頭靈光一閃，既然必需無事，那麽就讓他們曬曬太陽，瞌睡打盹，豈不妙哉？這是一個多麽傳神的細節！另外，這一細節亦可表達他倆細微的心理變化，由思友的心緒不寧到見麵後的心寧氣靜。尋覓一個有表現力的細節頗費心思，可謂“踏破鐵鞋無覓處”，苦不堪言；“得來全不費功夫”，其樂無比。西丁再創造的這個意象也似乎優於原作的意象，借落花之象表悵惘之意的意象在古詩詞中俯拾皆是，已少新鮮之感。再者，今之畫家以古典詩詞作為創作素材的人也不少，但鮮有人像西丁這樣給“心靈的境界”另尋“一片風景”，給原作的主題另覓一個更有表現力的意象。

First, "For nothing we meet each other”, so how can such a non-visual narrative language be transformed into a visually perceivable image?  Just think about it: two old friends, simply missing each other, but with nothing to deal with, now meet and exchange pleasantries. Then what will two old people do together?  At this, Xiding was probably in pensive mood and tried to find something for them. Playing chess? Playing lute? Reciting poetry? Reading? Calligraphing? Painting? It seems that none of these is a suitable imagery, for each scenario becomes "For something we meet each other". After much deliberation, suddenly, a flash of inspiration: since they have nothing to do, then let them bask in the sun and take a nap. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? What a vivid detail! In addition, this detail can also express their subtle psychological changes, from the worrying thoughts of longing for friends to peace of mind upon meeting. Looking for an expressive detail is quite laboring, and can be described as "wearing out iron shoes in fruitless searching", simply miserable; "yet by a lucky chance you may find what you are looking for without even trying", the most joyful. The imagery Xiding created seems to be superior to the original poem. It is very common and lack of sense of freshness applying the image of drifting flowers as the expression for melancholy mood in ancient Chinese poetry. In addition, there are many painters today who utilize the ancient poetry as their material for creation. However, few people look for "a landscape" for "the realm of the soul" and find a more expressive imagery for the original theme, like how Xiding did.

其二，兩個老頭，不能是兩個老年人的符號，而應是各具個性的鮮活生命。西丁的人物畫特別注意對人物神態情狀的入微刻畫，特別用力於人物的氣質風度的表達。再看在這幅作品中相對而眠的兩人：一靠於椅背，雙手袖於胸前，仰麵朝天；一斜倚於椅，左臂置於扶手，麵朝一側；一髭稍長而翹；一髭稍短而整；一瘦骨崚嶒；一麵豐體肥；一膚黑；一膚白；仰麵朝天者，似感狂放；麵朝一側者，似感內斂；狂放者，似為主人；內斂者，似為來客。何為有主客之分辨，試想，再親密無間之友，礙於友人內眷外仆，能放達自任乎？而在主人，已習以為常，自不會有所拘束。對人物構設如此之精致，形象刻畫又如此富於變化，能不傳神？

Second, the two old men should not be the mere symbols of two aged people, but should represent fresh life with individuality. Xiding's figure paintings pay special attention to the details of characters' demeanor, especially the expression of the person's temperament.  In this work, of the two napping friends, one is leaning on the back of the chair, with his hands on his chest, and his face towards the sky; the other is reclining on the chair, with his left arm on the armrest, facing the side; one has a mustache slightly longer and sticking up; the other with a mustache shorter and neat; one is thin and skeletal; the other with round face and body; one has dark skin; the other light; the one facing upwards seems wild; the one facing sideways looks introverted; the wild one is probably the host; the introverted the visitor. What is the distinction between the host and the visitor?  Well, even between the most intimate friends, the visitor cannot be unbridled in front of the host’s family members and servants. However, the master, accustomed to his environment, will certainly not be restrained. With such refined figure composition, and such rich characterization, how could the painting nor be vivid?

上述作品所使用的素材，是西丁在原作意旨上進行二次再創作時另覓的素材，是原作中可能有但作者卻未寫的。那麽大多數人常用的素材呢？西丁是否也能尋出一片“不同的風景”？且看西丁的《伯樂》。在以馬作為傳送信息、作戰衝鋒、交通運輸、農業生產的主要動力時代，具有相馬經驗與知識的人在社會上受到人們普遍的敬重，傳說中的伯樂、九方皋即是，伯樂甚至被認為是天上的星宿。因之，從古至今，以伯樂為素材的詩文繪畫作品多至難以計數。這樣反複畫了又畫的題材，西丁卻跳出了舊窠，尋出了不同的味道，覓出了新鮮的意象，把觀者帶入了新的意境。對此，李鴻秋先生有極為精妙的評述，摘引如下：

In the above work, the material is what Xiding sought and recreated based the original work, and is what might be in the original poem but the poet didn’t write. So how about the materials people commonly utilize? Can Xiding also find a "different landscape"? Let’s take a look at Xiding's "Bole". In the era when the horses were the main force for transmitting information, combat assault, transportation, and agricultural production, experienced and knowledgeable connoisseurs of horses were universally respected in the society, such as the legendary Bole and Jiufang Gao. Bole was even considered to be a celestial being in the heaven. Therefore, from ancient times to the present, there are numerous poems, proses, and paintings with Bole as the material. For such a repeatedly painted theme, Xiding departed from the beaten track, found a different feeling and a fresh image, and took the viewers into a new mood. Regarding this work, Mr. Li Hongqiu has an extremely exquisite remark, quoted as follows:

“先吃一驚的是這畫上無馬。沒馬，伯樂還相什麽勁？這活沒法幹了。西丁的高明之處正在這裏。他先賣了個“無馬”的破綻，卻又無中生有地讓畫中有馬；先畫了一個拴馬樁，樁頭有半截繩子扯向畫外；再畫伯樂凝眸順繩尋視而去。這樣就讓人們‘看’到了畫外臥著一匹馬，也許是秦二爺的瘦黃膘！感覺到它會隨時站起，噴鼻奮蹄，仰天長嘶，好一腔經曆了太久太久等待，而終於相見的怨，慕，泣，訴……為什麽西丁的無馬分明讓人看到了馬，甚至勝過有馬？這是一個深奧的美學修養問題，又是一個高超的眼界與手法問題。西丁先生深知藝術的魅力在於悠長的弦外之音，生命力在於群眾七嘴八舌的議論，於是留下大量空白且大膽地將空白留於畫外，隻讓大家順著伯樂的目光一起跑到畫外的廣闊天地，依據各自的生活經驗與審美情趣，郭噠郭噠地牽出自己的神駿。" 

"The first surprise is that on this painting there is no horse. What does Bole do without a horse? This cannot work. Xiding's brilliance is right here. He purposely teased viewers with a "horseless" scene and created the being of a horse out of non-being, by first painting a hitching post with a part of the rein pulling towards outside of the painting, and then painting Bole gazing along the rein.  Thus people can 'see' a horse outside the painting, perhaps a legendary winged steed, ready to stand up at any time, neighing and pounding, grumbling the long wait before finally meeting someone who knows its capacity, ... Why does Xiding’s painting of no horse clearly show the horse, or even better than having a horse? This is a profound mastery of aesthetics, and also superb vision and techniques. Mr. Xiding has deep understanding that the artistic charm lies in the overtones, and the vitality lies in the viewer’s discussions, thus he left a large amount of void and even boldly saved the void outside the painting. He just let viewers follow the Bole's eyes and go to the vast space outside the painting, and from their own life experience and aesthetic taste, soundly bring out their own magnificent steed".

再看李先生對西丁《伯樂》一畫有關人物傳神方麵的評述：“令人訝異的是西丁沒有讓偉大的伯樂正麵亮相，而是讓他背對觀眾；甚至不讓他相貌堂堂，而是讓他矮身短衫，滿臉風霜。盡管如此，通過西丁的妙筆摹狀，人們還是相信了正是這樣的伯樂才具有樸實的大智慧、大能耐。看，畫中的伯樂正風塵仆仆踽踽集市，卻驀地收腳，回頭，瞠目，警覺地向拴馬樁後麵掃去。頓時，眉骨突兀，幫眼睛聚焦，眸子滴溜溜轉，耳朵支楞老高，腳步繞樁移動，倒背的雙手先泄露了驚喜！那臉開始拉長，競‘同類’相憐地有了馬相；腳下也不由得腕細蹄圓，露出了‘馬腳’。嗚呼伯樂，終生為馬，能不馬化？”

More of Mr. Li's comments on Xiding's "Bole" regarding the expressiveness of the character: "It is surprising that Xiding did not let the great Bole face the viewers; he was not painted to be grand, but rather short and in a short-sleeved shirt, weather-beaten. However, through the portrayal of Xiding’s wonderful brushwork, people still believe that this is exactly the Bole with great wisdom and ability.  On the painting, Bole, travel-worn, is walking alone at the bazaar, but takes a sudden pause, looks back, staring alarmingly to the horse behind the hitching post. At once, he frowns so the eyes can focus, pricks his ears up, and turns his feet towards the hitching post, with his hands behind him that show a surprise!  His face begins to lengthen, even obtains some characteristics of a horse face; even his turning feet cannot help but resemble horse’s fine wrists and circular hoofs.  With a life with horses, how can he not obtain some resemblance? "

最後李鴻秋先生讚道："聽於無聲，觀於無形，極為簡練，卻深不可測；柔似無骨，卻棱角楚楚；一派寂寥，卻生氣勃勃。"李先生評語深中肯綮！

Finally, Mr. Li Hongqiu praised: "Listen to the silent, and view the invisible. Extremely concise, but unfathomable deep. Soft like boneless, but angular and edgy. All still, but so lively." Mr. Li’s comments are perfectly on the points!

人物畫向以傳神為極致，傳神，是人物畫家應具的真本領。西丁塑造的眾多人物形象，窮形盡致，無不肖妙，處處在在都顯露出他高超的造型傳神能力。畫古人而能得其神韻，表現出人物情思、意緒、氣質、品格這些精神層麵上的東西並非易事，胸中無豐厚的傳統文化積澱是辦不到的。"子非魚，焉知魚之樂？"今人非古人，怎能知道古人的情思、意緒呢？這隻能通過閱讀大量古代文史資料，尤其是古人表達自己思想感情的文學作品，去感知，去體會。西丁在這方麵下了很大功夫，其妙筆傳神的人物形象與其胸中豐厚的傳統文化積澱是分不開的。學養的高低決定了作品品位的高低。

A vivid touch has always been the ultimate attainment of figure painting, and is the true ability a figure painter ought to possess. The numerous figures Xiding has created are all in full details and remarkably lively, revealing his superb ability to construct and express vividly. It is not easy to paint the ancients and capture their charm, showing the emotions, mood, temperament, characters and other spiritual aspects.  It is an impossible feat without substantial accumulation of traditional culture. "You are not a fish, how can you understand the happiness of it?" As modern persons, how can we know feelings and emotions of the ancients? This can only be perceived and understood through the reading of a large amount of ancient materials of literature and history, especially the literary works by which the ancients expressed their thoughts and feelings. Xiding has made great efforts in this respect. The vivid characters under his brushes are inseparable from the rich traditional culture in his mind. The level of scholastic accomplishment determines the level of artistic work grade.

傳統畫論將畫之品格分為"能、妙、神"三品。唐朱景玄又於其後將"不拘常法"之作稱為"逸"品，而成四品。宋黃休複又將"逸"品列於"神"品之上。所謂"逸"，是"拙規矩於方圓，鄙精研於彩繪，筆簡神俱，得之自然。"西丁畫作當屬何品，觀者心中自會有自已的判斷。人物畫家王子武的女兒曾說："我爸看了西丁的畫冊，感到吃驚！"精於繪事者深諳畫中三昧啊！

Traditional painting theory classifies the qualities and styles of paintings into three categories: "able, wonderful, and vivid". Later, Zhu Jingxuan of Tang Dynasty called "innovative approach" as "carefree", a fourth category. Huang Xiufu of Song Dynasty further ranked "carefree" works superior to the "vivid”. The so-called "carefree" is "not rigidly adhering to the rules, advocating insipid styles, painting vividly with simple stokes, achieving natural work". The viewers will have their own judgments in their minds on how to classify Xiding’s works.  The daughter of figure painter Wang Ziwu once said: "My dad was in awe when he saw an album of Xiding’s paintings!"  It takes one to know one.

 

■詩意之境

■Poetic Realm

欣賞繪畫作品，常常有這樣的體驗：有的畫，掃一眼而已，你不會動情；有的畫，卻能讓你一個激靈，繼之端詳良久，欲罷不能，情思隨之飄移畫中，隨其蘊含的意緒波動。何為若此？意境使然。拜讀西丁的畫作有如吟哦絕妙好詩，畫中有詩的情愫，畫中有詩的意蘊，畫中有詩的意境。月與酒，是古代墨客騷人筆下的一個永恒主題，寫了數千年也未寫完其中的詩意。寫到了當代，依然有生花妙筆翻出了新意。林清玄有篇文章的題目是《溫一壺月光下酒》，就這一句，就有醇醇的酒香濃濃的詩意。月夜，純淨，靜謐，澄明，神秘，有種難以言表的詩美。西丁的畫筆也時不時地涉及到這一詩美的境域。

One often has the following experience when appreciating paintings: for some paintings, one glance is enough, and you will not feel emotionally connected; some other paintings can give you a start, and you cannot help but view them for a long time, unable to stop, feeling emotions drifting along with the mood contained in the painting. How so? Driven by artistic realm. Studying Xiding’s paintings is just like reciting a wonderful poem, for his paintings are rich in poetic emotions, poetic implications, and poetic artistic realm. The moon and the wine are eternal themes of the ancient poets and writers, non-exhaustible poetic meanings for thousands of years. Today, there are still new meanings out of wonderful pens and brushes. Lin Qingxuan has an article entitled "Warm Up A Pot of Moonlight to Accompany the Wine". This title by itself is laced with strong alcohol-rich poetic flavor. Moonlight night is pure, quiet, clear, mysterious, and has a kind of unspeakable beauty of poetry. Xiding's brush also touched upon this poetic beauty from time to time.

如畫作《山近月遠覺月小》：蒼山如屏矗立畫中，山邊皎皎明月當空，銀輝鋪地，萬籟俱寂，山腳小徑上，一醉者身子歪歪斜斜，一腳高一腳低地晃進了畫中，左手提著一個喝空了的酒葫蘆，右手對著山指指戳戳，睜大的眼睛好似清醒，嘴卻在自問自答地說著醉話："怪哉！怪哉！此山何以大於前日？此月何以小於昨夜？是山大了？還是月小了 ？嘻嘻，還是山大於月……山大於月……”醉目迷離中還在觀察判斷，迷迷糊糊中還在邏輯推理，但“大緣於近，小緣於遠”的理性分析能力已失落在了歸家的山徑中。畫中人物醉得有趣，迷糊得可愛。此畫取材於王陽明的《蔽月山房》，全詩為：“山近月遠覺月小/便道此山大於月/若有人眼大於天/當見山高月更闊”。據說此詩為王陽明十二歲時所作。詩中前兩句與後兩句列舉了兩類人觀察認識事物的不同角度與態度。前類人隻憑一己的直覺下結論，認為山大於月；後類人進行理性分析，認為山大緣於山近，月小緣於月遠，若能眼光開闊高遠，等距離觀察山與月，就會得出山雖高，但月更廣大更遼闊。此詩重於說理，理大於象。西丁畫作擷取的“山近月遠覺月小，便道此山大於月”二句，隻是說了“ 山近月遠”才感覺月亮小，如果僅憑這個感覺下結論是荒唐的。其中全是說理，幾乎無象可覓。句中既然無具體的人物形象描寫，那麽如何畫呢？如何表現這個“荒唐”呢？理是無法直接畫出來的！顯然，一般性的藝術形式的轉換是不行的，而需要畫家進行再次創作。西丁的藝術才華常常顯露在路幾乎走不通的地方，他構設情節、創造人物形象的本領是高強的。失去理性判斷而僅有下意識感覺的人都是些什麽人呢？智障者，瘋子，醉酒者。智障者與精神病人顯然不適宜畫，這有違人道，那麽醉酒者就是最妙的不二之選。古時文人好月好酒，邀友賞月飲酒是常有的雅事，那麽酒後呢？必然會有人醉意而歸。想到此，西丁的靈感降臨了，何不畫一醉酒文人月下踏著山徑獨歸，踉踉蹌蹌，恍兮惚兮，還在賞月，還在看山，他口出“山大於月”不是特別恰當了嗎？這畫中的意境，獨特，有趣，唯美，詩意盎然。西丁對原作的意旨作出了自己更為形象、更為生動、更為巧妙的解讀。畫古典詩詞，不是由詩到畫的“翻譯”，要有自己獨到的領悟，獨特的藝術表現，是一次新的提升，新的創造。西丁艱苦而優雅地完成了。

For example, let us study Xiding’s painting "The Mountain is Close and the Moon is Far, and the Moon Is Perceived as Small". On the painting, the vast mountain is standing like a huge screen, and on the side of the mountain there is a bright moon.  Silver moonlight covers the ground, and all is quiet. On a footpath, a drunkard, with inclining body, is stumping into the scene. His left hand is carrying an empty wine gourd, and pointing his right hand toward the mountain. Eyes wide open as if sober, but his mouth is of self-questioning drunkenness: “Strange!  Strange! Why is the mountain greater than the day before? Why is the moon smaller than last night? Did the mountain grow bigger? Or the moon smaller? Aha! The mountain is still greater than the moon ... ... The mountain is still greater than the moon ... ..." He is still observing and judging and trying to reason logically in his blurred drunken state. But the ability of rational analysis of "everything looks small in the distance and big on the contrary" has been lost on the mountain path to home. The figure is so drunk that he is interesting, so confused that lovable. This painting is based on Wang Yangming's "Moon-screening Mountain House". The poem is: "The mountain is close and the moon is far, and the moon is perceived as small / Thus I claim that this mountain is greater than the moon / If someone has eyes greater than the sky / Then he would see the mountain is great but the moon is broader". This poem is said to have been written by Wang Yangming at the age of twelve. The first two lines and the second two lines in the poem list different angles and attitudes of two kinds of people in their observation and understanding of things. People of the former group conclude that the mountain is greater than the moon based on their intuitions. People of the latter make a rational analysis, believing that the mountain looks great since it is near, and the moon looks small since it is in the distant. With more lofty and further vision from the same distance, one can come to the conclusion that although the mountain is high, the moon is even vaster. This poem focuses more on reasoning than the scenery. Xiding’s painting captures the first two lines: "The mountain is close and the moon is far, and the moon is perceived as small / Thus I claim that this mountain is greater than the moon”.  It is of course absurd just stating "The mountain is close and the moon is far" and then concluding that “the moon is small”. And all of these are reasoning, and there is almost no imagery.  How to paint this when there is no specific character description in the lines? How to express this "absurdity"? Reasoning cannot be painted directly! Obviously, general transformation between the art forms cannot work and it requires the painter to recreate. Xiding's artistic talent is often revealed on the seemingly impossible path. He is superbly skilled in constructing the plot and creating the image of the character. What kind of people would lose their rational judgment but have only unconscious feelings? The mentally ill, the crazy, and the drunk. The first two are not suitable for painting, then the drunk is the best choice. Ancient literati loved the moon and the wine, and often invited friends to enjoy the moon and drink together.  Afterwards? Someone was bound to head home drunk. With this in mind, Xiding’s inspiration arrived: why not paint a drunken man going home alone on a mountain trail under the moon? Staggering, absent minded, while still admiring the moon, still watching the mountain. Isn’t it particularly appropriate for him to state that "the mountain is greater than the moon”? The artistic conception in this painting is unique, interesting, beautiful and poetic.  Xiding’s own interpretation of the original work is more visually specific, livelier, and cleverer. Painting inspired by classical poetry should not be a mere "translation" of poetry to painting. It requires unique insight and unique artistic expression. It is a new distillation and a new creation. Xiding accomplished assiduously and elegantly.

在西丁諸多畫月的作品中，還有一幅《把酒話古今》讓人過目難忘。畫麵中兩位高士坐於石上，傾斜著身子相互敬酒。一位衣青，頰長、須疏、清臒；一位袍黃，額凸、須多、壯碩。身後左右兩側是嵯峨嶙峋的山岩，中天是一輪碩大無朋的月亮。看著這幅畫，我常有一種月光清涼如水的感覺，這是不是所稱的通感呢？由視覺的感受而引起了觸覺的感受。滿目清輝，使人心腑為之清澈，靈魂為之澄明。在此月明星稀之夜，似乎聆聽到兩位高士思接千載，神馳八荒的高談闊論，一時，自己也似乎超然於滄海桑田、曆史興衰之上，以哲人的眼光靜觀曆史長空中的風起雲落，以智者的睿思審視曆史長河中的匆匆過客。寫於此不由想起一付對聯，傳說明人周正高度近視，主考鄙之，卷上批曰："單翅鳥不能淩雲"，周正見批忿然對曰："半邊月仍照乾坤"。好一個"半邊月仍照乾坤"！中國古之士人常有一種"天下"情懷，寵辱不驚，得失不計，在朝在野，心懷天下。"半邊月仍照乾坤"是對中國士子"天下"情懷的妙喻。在中國古代曆史上，興衰存亡更替似乎成了逃不掉的曆史宿命，因而興衰更替也成了中國士人談不完的話題。《把酒話古今》畫成了一首意境空靈，意味悠長的古詩。

Among many Xiding’s moon themed paintings, there is another unforgettable work, titled "Raising the Wine Cups and Talking about the Ancient and the Current". The two esteemed gentlemen in the painting sit on the rocks, tilting their bodies to toast each other. One is clothed in blue, with long cheeks and sparse beard, and thin. The other wears a yellow gown, with a convex forehead and thick beard, and strong. Behind them, there are lofty and rugged rocks on the left and right.  Above, in the middle of the sky, there is a gigantic moon. Viewing this painting, I often have a feeling that the moonlight is as cool as water. Isn’t this the so-called connected sense? Visual perception caused a sense of touch. A scene full of clear moonlight makes the heart clear and the soul clear. One can almost hear, in such a night with bright moon and few stars, the two gentlemen’s voluble talks on the ancient and current, of the near and the far. For a time, one seems to be detached from the vistas of the world, and the rises and falls in the history, and view the history’s rising wind, rolling clouds, and fleeting figures with the analytical view of a philosopher and the foresights of a sage. At this point, I cannot help but think of a pair of couplets. The legend is that Zhou Zheng of Ming Dynasty had a high degree of myopia, and the examiner looked down on him and wrote: "A bird with one wing cannot fly far". Zhou Zheng angrily replied: "Half-moon can still illuminate heaven and earth".  So nicely said that "Half-moon can still illuminate heaven and earth"!   Ancient Chinese scholars often had a kind of "world" feelings, remained indifferent whether favored or humiliated, ignored gains and losses, and always cared about the world, in the court or in the wild. "Half-moon can still illuminate heaven and earth" is a wonderful metaphor for the feeling of "world" for Chinese scholars. In the history of ancient China, the rise and fall of the succession and failure seem to have become the inescapable historical fate. Therefore, the rise and fall of dynasties have been an eternal topic for Chinese scholars. "Raising the Wine Cups and Talking about the Ancient and the Current" thus painted an ancient poem of ethereal mood and profound meaning.

西丁在創作中，不拘泥於傳統山水畫、人物畫的疆界與章法，常常根據內容表達的需要靈活地將兩種元素進行組合安排。畫中的秀峰幽壑，深川大澤，氤氳山嵐，嶙峋奇石，皎皎明月，瑟瑟蘆荻，燦燦山花，鬱鬱鬆柏，天際飛鴻，高空流雲，與品茗的文人，論道的高士，枰上對弈的村童野老，笑談古今的漁翁樵夫，兩種元素相匯相融，釀成了一種古樸典雅的美，一種空靈超逸的美，它浸潤著你，消解著你，使你超然於逼仄囂擾的現實之外，逸出於庸常的得失憂樂之中，頓覺天地之久遠，造化之無窮，心魄為之淨化，胸闊臆舒，神清氣靜。這種強烈的藝術魅力，來自於畫家創造的人與自然契合，情於景交融的詩意之境，來自於這意境中蘊含的對自然、對人生深刻感悟。

In his artistic creations, Xiding does not rigidly adhere to the boundaries and rules of traditional landscape painting and figure painting, and often flexibly combines the two elements according to the needs of content expression. In his paintings, landscapes such as beautiful mountains and peaceful valleys, deep rivers and wide ponds, enshrouding mists and mountain haze, jagged rocks, bright moon, rustling reeds, resplendent mountain flowers, lush cypresses, flying geese at the horizon, meandering clouds in the sky, and figures like tea-drinking literati, the eminent gentlemen having philosophical discussions, the chess-playing village elderly and youngster, the fisherman and the woodcutter making casual remarks on ancient and the current, are combined together, leading to a simple, elegant, and ethereal beauty. This beauty infiltrates you, merges with you, and makes you transcendental over the pressing and noisy reality, escaping from the trivial gains and losses, worries and cheers, at once feeling the vastness of the universe and the infinite power of creation, with soul being purified, mind broadened, senses clear and calm. Such strong artistic charm comes from the harmonious integration of humans and nature and the poetic realm,  from  artistic realm of blending emotions with the scenery, all created by the artist. And it comes from the profound understanding of nature and life.

 

當然，詩意之境的最後完成與表達，將之物化於紙上，還有賴於畫家高妙精到的水墨技法。清代書畫家笪重光在他的《畫筌》中曾有這樣的論述：“山川之氣本靜，筆躁動則靜氣不生；林泉之姿本幽，墨粗疏則幽姿頓減。”這段話反證了筆墨技法的重要性，詩意之美離不開華滋妙美的筆墨技法。西丁作品中的澄明之美、靜謐之美與其高妙精到、渾然天成的潑墨寫意技法是分不開的。

Of course, the final realization and expression of the poetic realm, and the materialization on the paper, also depend on the artist's wonderful and meticulous ink and wash techniques. Calligrapher and painter Da Chongguang of Qing Dynasty stated in his "The Trace of Paintings": "The atmosphere of mountains and rivers is calm, and a restless brush will not create calm atmosphere; the appearance of the forests and the streams is quiet, and inattentive ink diminishes the quiet appearance”. This passage provides counterevidence for the importance of brush and ink techniques. The beauty of poetic realm cannot be separated from the wonderful and beautiful painting techniques. The clarity and tranquility of beauty in the Xiding’s work, is inseparable from his subtle and refined splash-ink freehand techniques.

 

■明徹之理

■Limpid Reason

意象、意境是用來表達作者思想情感的。而思想，有較為具體的，低層階上的；也有較抽象的，高層階上的。如果思想抽象到一定的高度，便成了哲思，哲理。西丁特別著意於將哲思蘊含於作品的意象、意境之中，追求作品中深刻的哲理表達。

Imagery and artistic realm are used to express the author's thoughts and feelings. There are more specific, fundamental-level thoughts; and there are more abstract, high-level thoughts. If the idea is  ??abstract to a certain level, it has become philosophical thoughts and philosophical reasoning. Xiding diligently works on implicating philosophical thoughts in the images and artistic realm of his works, and pursues the profound philosophical expression in his works.

《三人行》中，三位士子結伴遊於溶洞，一邊感應天地之靈氣，一邊求索學問之真諦，辨難析疑，切磋琢磨，互啟互動，相學相補。"三人行，必有我師"，謙謙君子，虛懷若穀。畫中，洞窟幽邃，奇石突兀，猶如士子們探索的問題，深邃而奧秘。層疊幽深的溶洞有著強烈的象征意味。"入之愈深，其進愈難，而其見愈奇”，“夫夷以近，則遊者眾；險以遠，則至者少。而世之奇偉瑰怪之觀，常在於險遠而人跡罕至焉。故非有誌者不能至也。"不隻探秘溶洞如此，做學問，搞藝術，乃至人生處世，那一端不是這個道理？理融於境，思化於象，而理與思借助境與象的顯現，更其明徹。

In the painting "Three Men Walking Together", the three scholars visit a cave in each other’s company, sensing the aura of heaven and earth, and seeking the true meaning of knowledge, discussing the knotty and the complicated, pondering and exchanging views, interacting, inspiring, and learning from each other.  "Where there are three men walking together, one of them is bound to be able to teach me something". They are open-minded and modest gentlemen. In the paintings, the cave is mysterious and the rocks are abrupt, like the questions explored by the scholars, deep and mysterious. Cascading deep cave has a strong symbolic meaning. "The deeper into it, the more difficult, and the more remarkable to see".  "The near, the more visitors; the further one risks, the less crowded. The most marvelous and remarkable scenes in the world are often located at the far and dangerous places, rarely visited. Therefore, only the determined can reach".  Such is not only cave exploration, but also academia, art, and even life. Reason integrated in the mood, thoughts in the image, and with the demonstration of artistic realm and image, reason and thoughts become more limpid.

《不識廬山真麵目》，此畫取材於蘇軾《題西林壁》一詩的後二句。畫中蘇軾斜身坐於石上，左臂支撐著身體，右臂搭於膝上，舉目凝望，怡然自得。身周，峰巒四合，山嵐氤氳。東坡身處穀中，視野為峰巒所限，隻能看到近圍的山巒丘壑，雲蒸霧騰，而大山的整體形態風貌卻難以統攝於目中，他慨而歎之：不識廬山真麵目，隻緣身在此山中！這是東坡以哲人的眼光得出的理性認識。西丁此畫生動形象地呈現了蘇詩思致渺遠的意境，觀者不隻如身臨其境地領略了穀秀峰奇的美感，心智也得到了深遂雋永的哲理啟迪。至此，詩與畫的主旨——要認清事物的真相與全貌，必須超越狹小的視界，擺脫主觀與片麵——這一樸素的辨證唯物認識論在此得到了巧妙的闡釋。但是，人真正要做到知行合一並非易事，常常是知易行難。在人類曆史上，人們常常表現得盲目而自信，總以為自己找到了終極真理，並將之神聖化，誰若懷疑，就會被視為異端。由此可見，擺脫主觀性片麵性有多難！隻有走出“山中”，擺脫一隅之局限，才會見到“橫看成嶺側成峰，遠近高低各不同”的無限風光！

The painting "Cannot Tell the True Shape of Lushan" is based on the last two lines of Su Shi's "On the Wall of Xilin Temple". It paints Su Shi reclining on a rock, with left arm supporting the body, right arm resting on his knees, gazing up, content and happy. There are misty mountains all around him. Su Shi is in a valley, and his view is limited by the mountainous ridges. He can only see the surrounding hills and valleys. In the misty and hazy clouds and fog, the overall shape and appearance of the mountain is difficult to see. He thus sighs: I cannot tell the true shape of Lushan, because I myself am in the exact mountain!  This is the rational understanding of Su Shi's philosophical vision. This painting by Xiding vividly presents the deep thinking mood of Su Shi’s poetry. The viewer can not only enjoy the beauty of the pretty valleys and remarkable mountains, but also have a profound philosophical enlightenment. At this point, the essence of the poem and the painting - a plain dialectical materialist epistemology that to understand the truth and the whole picture, we must go beyond the narrow horizon and cast off the subjective and the one-sided point of view - has been cleverly interpreted. However, it is not always easy for people to accomplish the unity of knowledge and practice. Often, understanding is easier than practicing. In human history, people often behave blindly and confidently, always consider that they have found the ultimate truth and sanctified what they have found. They regard anyone heresy for doubting the perceived ultimate truth.  From history, we know how difficult it is to cast off the subjectivity and one-sidedness! We can only see the infinite beauty of all the ridges and peaks, high and low, near and far, by going beyond the “mountains” and casting off the limitations!

《不及林間自在啼》也是一幅深蘊哲理的佳作。畫題借自歐陽修 《郡齋聞百舌》一詩的第四句。畫中那些有閑的人們，以玩鳥為樂，豈知鳥是否樂？鳥籠縱然做工考究，終究為囚禁自由的牢籠，何如讓鳥兒回歸自然，於林間自由飛翔，在枝頭自由歌唱？而這又何止鳥兒，人間有沒有同樣的牢籠？人身依附，思想專製，也是人格、精神上的牢籠，作品在用“不及林間自在啼”這一意象呼喚獨立之人格，自由之思想。寓意深遠，哲思深邃。正如美學家宗白華先生所說：“真理閃耀於藝術形象裏。”

"It Is Better to Freely Crow in the Forest" is also a masterpiece deep in philosophical thoughts. The title of the painting is a quote from the fourth line of Ouyang Xiu's poem entitled "Hearing Many Birds at the Town Residence".  Do those idling bird owners in the painting know if the caged birds are happy?  Even though the birdcage is exquisitely crafted, after all it is a cage imprisoning freedom. Wouldn’t it be better to return the birds to nature so they fly freely in the woods and sing freely in the branches? And not only for birds, aren’t there the same cages imprisoning human beings? Personal attachment and ideological autocracy are cages for personality and spirituality.  This painting calls for independent personality and freedom of thoughts with the image of "It is better to freely crow in the forest ". With far-reaching meaning and profound philosophical thoughts, this work is what the famed esthetician Zong Baihua said: "The truth shines in the artistic image".

詩人流沙河在其詩論中將詩的構成要素歸結為情、智、象。“情，心情也，構成詩之魂。智，心智也，構成詩之骨。象，心象也，構成詩之貌。詩之有情有智有象，亦猶人之有魂有骨有貌豈可或缺？”藝術之理相通，畫豈能外？智亦理，西丁著意於作品中哲理的表達，亦即強骨也。

In his theory on poetry, the poet Liushahe attributes the elements of poetry to emotion, wisdom and imagery. "Emotion is the feeling of the heart, constituting the soul of a poem.  Wisdom is the intelligence of the heart, constituting the bones of a poem. Imagery is the image of the heart, constituting the appearance of poetry.   Just like a person has to have the soul, the bones and the appearance, a poem cannot lack any of them".  The same is true for painting, another form of art. Wisdom is reason, Xiding’s intention to express the philosophy thoughts in his work constitutes strong bones.

 

■盎然之趣

■Exuberant Delight

品讀鑒賞西丁的作品不能不提一件往事。那還是華君武先生健在的時候，他有次觀賞西丁的畫冊時，端詳著封麵上側耳傾聽狀的高士形象，便也身子向後一斜，雙手搭於腿上，模仿了起來，並且笑而頷首，讚許人物造型有趣。現任國家畫院院長的楊曉陽是這樣評論西丁作品的：“構圖經常很奇巧，造型很洗練很概括，有適當的誇張，情節都很巧妙，所以畫很有趣味。他有書法和漫畫的基礎，有長期觀察生活的經驗，能敏銳抓住很有意義的、很有趣味的情節。他的畫，題材有一些很別致。就是同樣的傳統題材，他畫的效果和別人不一樣。”五句話，百十個字中，與趣有關的“奇巧”、“巧妙”、“別致”的用詞各出現了一次，而“趣味”一詞出現了兩次。這是專家們對西丁作品的直覺感受。在普通讀者中，西丁作品的“有看頭”，“有嚼頭”，“有味道”，“有趣兒”更是遐邇聞名。

Appreciating works by Xiding, I have to mention an antidote. When at one time, the late Mr. Hua Junwu was viewing an album of Xiding’s works, he looked up and down at the image of the gentleman straining his ears to listen, and then leaned backwards, hands resting on his legs, and imitated the figure.  Mr. Hua laughed and nodded, praising that the figure was delightfully composed. Yang Xiaoyang, current president of the National Academy of Painting, commented on the works of Xiding as such: "The compositions are often very ingenious; the shapes are very succinct and condensed; with appropriate level of exaggeration, and very clever plots, the paintings are highly delightful.  With the mastery of calligraphy and cartoons, and a long experience of observing life, he can seize very meaningful and interesting episodes. The themes of some of his paintings are rather unique. Even for the same traditional themes, the effects he painted are different from others”.  In his remark of about a hundred characters, the words related to “delight" appeared often. This is the intuitive feeling of experts on the works of Xiding. Among general public, the works of Xiding have been described as “worth viewing”, “full of aftertaste”, “fun”, “interesting”, and enjoyed widespread renown.

趣，就藝術創造而言，是追求藝術境界的高標準；就藝術欣賞而言，是藝術品能夠激起人美感的基本要求。有趣才能引人，有趣才能感人，有趣的藝術品才有撼人心魄的魅力。在中國古典美學中，寫意藝術流派強調抒寫性靈，將趣作為藝術創造的理想美，認為是藝術追求的極致。

Delight, in terms of artistic creation, is a high standard to pursuit in artistic realm. In terms of artistic appreciation, it is a basic requirement for artworks to be able to arouse people's aesthetic feelings.  Delight is necessary in order to attract and move people. Only delightful artworks have thrilling charms. In Chinese classical aesthetics, the schools of freehand art emphasize the expression of the spirit, and regard delight as the ideal beauty of artistic creation and the ultimate pursuit of art.

其一，筆趣。

First, the delight of brushwork.

如前所述，潑墨寫意是一項極限挑戰。要用減之不能再減，洗練而概括的筆墨，為天地立繁富之象，為萬物傳精微之神，這本身就是一個極大的矛盾。洗練與繁富，概括與精微，矛盾的兩端要統一於畫者的筆下，既艱困，又有吸引力；既有琢磨用筆之苦，又有獲得成功後的欣愉。畫者就常常在這種苦樂之間躊躇。西丁臨案，提筆作畫，潑灑渲染，勾勒皺點，在筆痕墨暈之間，山起峰立，霧升雲飛，鬆柏鬱鬱，奇石磊磊；在寥寥數筆之中，伯樂凝眸，達摩入定，東坡冥想，雪芹沉思……麵對自已筆下呈現出的勃鬱自然，麵對自己筆下湧現出的鮮活生命，此時此刻，畫家能不欣喜不已，激動不已？此樂何極！而觀者，看到的是筆飛墨舞，三筆兩筆，一個李白呼之欲出；橫塗豎抹，一座秀峰撲麵而來。如此妙趣，不由手癢，我也試試！這是筆墨趣味的魅力。看似容易成卻難，潑墨寫意，稍有不慎，恣肆漫漶，形體不守，物象怪誕，畫筆之下，也會出現墨豬蠢鴉，癡翁呆婦，屋漏處處，蚓痕觸目，擲筆於案，疑而歎曰："江郎才盡？"廢紙三千，付之一炬。個中滋味隻有畫家自己知道，觀者常常難以體會。觀者所見，隻是畫家光鮮的一麵。西丁正是在這艱困又有吸引力的挑戰中磨練出了自己個性獨具的筆墨功夫。

As mentioned above, splash-ink freehand is an ultimate challenge. It is a great contradiction to establish the rich images and spirits for the complicated and subtle universe with extremely minimized, succinct and concise brush strokes. Succinct and complicated, concise and subtle, the artist has to unify under his brush the two sides of the contradiction. Both difficult and attractive; the pain of efforts and the pleasure of success. The painters often wonder between the bitterness and joy. When Xiding is at the his desk, picking up brush to paint, splashing, rendering, drawing, and sketching, within the tracks of the brush and the marks of the ink, mountains rise and peaks stand, fogs form and clouds fly, luxuriant are the pines and cypresses, and outstanding are the remarkable rocks. With a few strokes, Bole gazes, Bodhidharma meditates, Su Shi ponders, and Cao Xueqin contemplates ... In the face of the natural beauty and vivid figures emerging under his own brush, the artist cannot help but be happy and excited.  What a joy! The viewers see the flying brush and dancing ink. With a few strokes, Li Bai is ready to step out of the paper. Another few, a beautiful mountain is right in your face. So much delight, the viewers are probably tempted to try. This is the charm of the brush and ink. Seemingly easy but rather difficult. With splash-ink freehand brushwork, a tiny misstep would result in unbridled, unruly, grotesque imagery, and under the brush, there could appear stupid and clumsy animals, lifeless figures, and unsightly surroundings.  At that time, one might throw the brush down and sigh in self-doubt: "Have I depleted all my talent?" and commit a great amount of efforts to a flame. All the difficulties in art creation are only known by the artist himself. It is often hard for the viewers to imagine. What the viewers see is just the glorious side of the artistic activities. It is in all the difficult and fascinating challenges, Xiding has honed his own unique style of brushwork.

西丁的畫中有兩多：一是石頭多，二是高士多。高士頗具石頭的品格，石頭頗通高士的靈性。為了充分表現石頭與高士的風骨與神韻，他將酣暢淋漓的潑墨畫法發揮到了極致。畫石，既盡情發揮水墨流動、滲化、碰撞、融匯所產生的張力，同時又按作品的立意、構圖、造型的需要巧妙控製著水墨流動、滲化的方位與形態，不是被汪洋恣肆的水墨牽著自己走，而是自己的才思、情緒引導著水墨走，是意在筆先，而不是意在筆後，是揮灑前的清醒預見，而不是揮灑後的偶然發現。他的潑墨山石，有的秀麗朗潤，有的詭譎奇突，有的峭拔勁挺，有的層疊嶙峋，多姿多態，形質各異，於混沌中脈絡清晰，在淋漓中結構分明，尤以少有人涉及的的溶洞與鍾乳石畫得最為精妙。畫人，他的運筆用墨，既揮灑自如，又嚴謹縝密，放得開，收得住，開合有致，張弛有度，看似不經意的寥寥數筆，但人物形神畢現，情態各具，這與畫家紮實深厚的造型功底和對水墨技法精熟的把握是分不開的。隻有熟諳對象之精微，藝術表現才能提煉和升華，筆墨才會顯現簡約與老辣。以少勝多的功力需要堅實的功底與時日的積累。

Two things appear the most often in Xiding's paintings:  rocks and literati. Literati and rocks share many qualities and characteristics. In order to fully demonstrate the styles and charms of rocks and literati, Xiding utilizes splash-ink painting method to the full extent. To paint rocks, he gives full play to the tensions arising from the flow, infiltration, collision, and integration of the ink, and at the same time, according to the works of the idea, composition, modeling needs, cleverly controls of the orientation and form of the flow and osmosis of the ink.  Instead of being led by the unbridled ink, he lets his talent and emotions direct the ink. It is having the idea in the mind before starting to paint, not the other way around. It is brilliant foresight before swaying the brush, rather than the accidental discovery afterwards. Of his splash-ink painted rocks, some are beautiful and bright, and some strange and eccentric, some are steep and straight, and some are layered and rugged. They are all various in postures and different in characters, distinctly shaped in the chaos, clearly structured in the freedom.  Few people have painted the limestone caves and stalactites, but Xiding paints them with the most subtlety. To paint figures, his application of brush and ink is free and smooth, and at the same time rigorous and meticulous.  Having both a free hand and the full control, with textured opening and closing, and measured tension and relaxation. Vivid figures with various shapes and spirits fully appear with seemingly a few casual strokes. This is inseparable with the artist’s solid foundation of modeling and mastery of ink techniques. An artist needs to be familiar and intimate with all the subtleties of the objects in order to refine and excel in artistic performance, and to apply brush and ink with simplicity and intelligence. It takes a substantial foundation and years of accumulation to obtain the skills that can express more, with less strokes.

西丁的潑墨寫意畫法也吸收了西畫的塊麵、調子之法，增強了物象的體積感與畫麵的空間感，但沒有失去潑墨寫意畫法靈動超逸的特點而陷於僵與滯。畫家將中西技法消化得了無痕跡，融合得自自然然，若不留意，並未感到吸收了西畫的什麽東西，而覺得是很純粹、很本色的我們民族自己的東西。

Xiding's splash-ink freehand brushwork also absorbs the block and toning method of western painting, which enhances the sense of volume of the object and the sense of space of the painting, but without losing the graceful, free, and natural characteristics of the splash-ink freehand brushwork. The painter digested the Chinese and western techniques without any trace, and achieved the fusion naturally. Without close scrutiny, one will not feel that Xiding has absorbed anything from the western painting and will consider his works purely and natively Chinese.

總之，畫家執筆運墨，或書或畫，在筆痕墨暈之中追尋著美感與趣感的享受。長短，粗細，幹濕，濃淡，這些既對立又依存的水墨造型原素，如同一個個音符，畫家要使之變為旋律，化為節奏，既有騰躍變化，又要呼應相諧，權衡，調整，用這些原素譜寫出恢弘華滋的水墨交響樂。

In brief, the painter applies brush and ink, calligraphing or painting, in search of beauty and delight in the traces of brush and marks of ink. Long and short, thick and thin, dry and wet, dense and light. The artist must compose all these opposite and interdependent ink and wash styling elements, like notes, into a melody, into a rhythm, with leaping variations and echoing harmony, balancing and adjusting all the elements, to achieve a grand symphony of ink and wash.

其二，情趣。

Second, the delight of temperament.

情趣，包含神態之趣、動態之趣、情節之趣、細節之趣。西丁善於捕捉人物神態、動態，擅於構設情節、細節，這也是他在作品中刻劃人物極為著力的方麵。

The delight of temperament includes the delight of demeanors, dynamics, plots, details. Xiding excels at capturing characters' demeanors and dynamics, and structuring the plots and details. This is also the characterization aspects he directs his efforts at in his works.

先看神態之趣。如《杜甫苦吟圖》、《曹雪芹造像》。佇立仰首的杜甫，雖在看天，但眼神迷離，已入視而不見聽而不聞的耽思之境，心目中隻有枯藤般繞來繞去、糾結難定的字詞；繞石踱步的曹雪芹，眉頭微蹙，低首看地，亦入聽不聞視不見的沉思之境，心目中隻有眾多逃不脫曆史悲劇命運的男女老幼。西丁畫作中，這樣的點睛妙筆彼彼皆是。

Let's take a look at the delight of demeanors with examples "Du Fu Writing Poems with Painstaking Effort" and "A Portrait of Cao Xueqin". Du Fu stands and looks up at the sky, but with misted expression in the eyes. He looks but sees not, and listens but hears not. In his mind there are only those words and lines, winding and tangling like vines.  Cao Xueqin paces around a rock, slightly frowning, bowing his head and staring at the ground, also in the stage of taking no notice of surroundings. In his mind, there are only those numerous men, women, children that could not escape the fates of the historical tragedy. Such wonderful revealing touches are everywhere in the paintings of Xiding.

再看西丁畫作中的動態之趣。如《城牆根》組畫中的《吊嗓子》，一人張開雙臂，擴胸運氣，引吭高唱；一人伏身低首，手握琴弓，甩開膀子，專致操琴。其陶陶然的沉醉之態躍然紙上。《盲棋》一畫中，對弈二人：一瘦，一胖；瘦者蹺二郎腿，胖者雙腿前伸；蹺腿者捧一壺茶，伸腿者持一支煙；喝茶者壺近唇邊不飲，抽煙者煙近嘴邊不吸。可見戰事正酣，已無暇顧及喝茶抽煙。頭腦中在格鬥，在拚殺。再看《草聖》一畫，史載："旭飲酒輒草書，揮筆而大叫，以頭揾水墨中而書之，天下呼為'張顛'。醒後自視，以為神異，不可複得。"這幅作品正是描繪書聖這種醉酒的顛狂之狀：撞倒酒罈，踢翻酒碗，衝向書案，以發濡墨，迫不急待地龍飛鳳舞一番。畫中將張旭亢奮、爆發式的創作激情表現得淋漓盡致。有趣的肢體語言更能深刻揭示人物的內心世界！

Xiding paintings are also full of the delight of dynamics. For example, in “Training Voice” of the series paintings "At the Foot of City Wall", one person, with open arms, expanding chest and gathering breath, sings and louder sings; while the other, bending over and bowing head, holding the bow, swinging his arm, focuses on the accompanying instrument.  Their indulgence shows forth on the paper. In "Blind Chess", of the two players, the thin one rockers legs and carries a tea pot, and the plump extends legs forward and holds a cigarette. The tea pot holder has the tea near the lips but does not drink, and smoker has the cigarette near his mouth but doesn’t smoke. Apparently the game is in full swing, and there is no time for cigarette nor tea. Playing is the only thing in their minds. Now look at "The Master of Cursive Style Calligraphy". According to the history: "Zhang Xu calligraphed in cursive style once he drank wine, welding brush and shouting loudly, dipping his head in the ink and writing with his hairs. People called him 'Zhang the Crazy'.  Once sober, he looked at his own works, regarded them magical, and could not reproduce". This painting depicts the drunk madness of the master of calligraphy: knocking down wine jars, kicking down the wine bowls, rushing to the desk, soaking his hairs with ink, he cannot wait to write like dragon flying and phoenix dancing. The painting most vividly shows the exciting and explosive creating passion of Zhang Xu. Delightful body language reveals the inner world of characters more deeply!

下麵再看情節之趣。如《忘年棋友》一畫中，畫家構設了兩位棋友對陣的情節：一虎頭虎腦，天真爛漫；一瘦骨崚嶒，須眉皤然；幼者身子後仰，眼睛瞪圓，手指棋盤，似得意地喊了聲："將！"；老者身體前傾，雙唇緊閉，俯視棋盤，似在苦思如何破解盤中困局。在這對老小棋友之間，隻有棋局上暫時的勝負，而無尊卑長幼這些禮教上的精神負擔，"忘年交"的主題詮釋得風趣而自然。再如《城牆根》組畫中的《圍棋》，畫家構設了一群人圍觀兩個人下圍棋的情節，此時，"圍棋"一詞產生了兩個語意，一為所下之圍棋，一為"圍而觀棋"，一語雙關，諧趣油然而生。

Next it is the delight of plots. In "Chess Friends between Generations", the painter constructed the plot of two chess friends playing a game of Chinese Chess: one is strong, good natured, young, innocent and naive; the other thin and with long beard; the young, with body leaning back, eyes staring, points a finger at the chessboard, and seems proudly announcing: "Check!"; the old, leaning forward, with lips closed, looking down at the checkerboard, seems to be trying to extricate himself from the difficult situation. Between the young and old chess players, there is only the temporary outcome on the chessboard, but no spiritual burden of ranks and generations.  "Chess Friends between Generations" interprets the theme humorously and naturally. Another example is the painting "Go (Weiqi)" in the series paintings "At the Foot of City Wall". The artist constructed a plot of a group of people watching the two players at a Go (Weiqi) game. Here, the Chinese word "Weiqi" has double meanings, one for the Chinese name of the game, and the other "surrounding crowd watching the game". It is spontaneous delight from the pun.

另外，還有細節之趣。《鍾馗圖》中的鍾馗，當眼角瞥到側旁鬼影一閃，抑或聽到身後窸窣一聲，旋即一個轉身，劍鋒直指而去。繪畫受其瞬時性靜態性的限製，難以如舞台表演般表現出身體旋轉的過程。為了表現鍾馗急速轉身的動作，西丁選擇了一個細節，這就是劍的飾帶繞著鍾馗的弧形飄動。一個細節，使靜態的畫麵動了起來；一個細節，強化了人物機警的性格特征。再如《山近月遠覺月小》，月下醉歸的士子，手中提的酒葫蘆不是下垂著而是橫在空中晃蕩著，這個細節說明葫蘆裏已空無滴酒，不是沉甸甸的而是輕飄飄的，可見此翁確已喝得不少。細節是表現人物的重要手段，經過選擇提煉的典型細節在揭示人物的性格上有著重要的作用。

In addition, there is the delight of details. In the painting "Zhong Kui", upon catching a glimpse of a demon out of the corner of his eyes or hearing a soft noise behind, Zhong Kui, the deity and chaser of the demons, suddenly turns around, and points his sword straightly out. Painting is limited by its statics state of one instant, and is difficult to represent the process of body turning as in a stage show. In order to show the sudden turning action of Zhong Kui, Xiding chose a detail: the tassels of the sword waving around Zhong Kui. A detail makes a static picture into an active scene, and reinforces the character's alertness. Another example is “The Mountain is Close and the Moon is Far, and the Moon Is Perceived as Small". The wine gourd in the hand of the homecoming drunk gentleman is not drooping but horizontal sloshing in the air. This detail shows that the gourd is without a drop, thus not heavy but rather floating in the air. We can see clearly that this gentleman has indeed drunk much. A detail is an important means of characterization. The typical details of the selection and refinement play an important role in revealing the character's personality.

其三，理趣。

Third, the delight of reason.

意象是用來表情說理的。在重於說理的作品中，通過意象，道理闡發得機智巧妙，表述得生動有趣，是為充滿理趣的上品。在“明徹之理”一節中，已對西丁作品中的哲思追求與表達作了較多的評析，在此不再例舉。用形象來說理是一種高度的智慧，有著濃鬱的趣味，故而在談趣的章節中將之作為趣的一個類型列入。

Imagery is used to express emotions and to reason things out. In the works heavy in reasoning, the top-grade ones are those cleverly expressing the truths via vivid and interesting images. In the section of "Limpid Reason" we have made many comments on the pursuit and expression of philosophical thinking in the works of Xiding, and we will not provide additional examples here. To reason via imagery is a high degree of wisdom with strong delight, thus we list it as one class of delight in this section.

其四，異趣。

Fourth, the delight of extraordinary.

詩人流沙河有一段關於藝術想象的論述：“所謂想象不過是一個人在生活中獲得的種種印象之再組合而已。印象之再組會，方式恐怕很多，不好定於一尊。大致說來，既有現實主義的方式，也有非現實主義的方式。通過前一種方式再組合印象，便是合理的想象。通過後一種方式再組合印象，便是非合理的想象。”創作藝術品，既需要合理想象，也需要非合理想象。合理想象產生的藝術趣味，可稱作常趣；非合理想象產生的藝術趣味，可稱作異趣。西丁在自己的創作中既尋覓常趣，也更用力於異趣的求索。上麵所分析的趣之種類應屬常趣，下麵再繼續評析西丁作品中的異趣。

The poet Liushahe has an exposition on artistic imagination: "The so-called imagination is just a re-combination of all the impressions of a person has obtained in life. The ways to recombine the images are probably too many to define. In general, there are realistic and nonrealistic ways. It is a reasonable imagination to recombine the impressions in the former way, and it is an unreasonable imagination to recombine the impressions in the latter way". Creating works of art needs both reasonable imagination and non-reasonable imagination. The artistic delight produced by a reasonable imagination can be called ordinary delight. The artistic delight produced by a non-rational imagination can be called extraordinary delight. In his works, Xiding seeks ordinary delight, and puts in even more efforts in seeking extraordinary delight. The types of delight analyzed above should be classified as ordinary ones, and the following discussions are on the extraordinary delight in the works of Xiding.

一為變形之趣。如《酒逢知己千杯少》，畫家以意造象，有意拔高人物的腰身，拉直人物的雙臂，造成一種力度感，突出敬酒時的熱忱、真摯、恭敬。這種超越人體正常結構比例的誇張變形，是將人物的心理狀態作為依據的，變得自然合理，變得生動有趣，非一些為變形而變形，變得莫明其妙，變得醜陋不堪的浮淺之作可同日而語。變形，是表意的需要，可稱為隨意變形，但非隨便變形，否則就會失去美感，趣感也蕩然無存。

One is the delight of exaggerated transforming, such as in "A Thousand Toasts are Too Few for a Congenial Friend" the artist constructed an image from a concept, and intentionally lengthened the waists of the figures, straightened their arms, resulting in a sense of urgency, highlighting the enthusiasm, sincerity, and respect in the toast. This exaggerated transformation, exceeding the proportion of the normal structure of the human body, is based on the psychological state of the characters and becomes naturally and reasonably vivid and interesting. This fundamentally differs from the shallow and superficial works that transform for the sake of transforming and thus become incomprehensible and unsightly.  Exaggerated transformation based on the needs of expression of concepts can be called transformation in line with concepts. Random transformation loses the sense of beauty and delight.

二為擬象之趣。《赤壁歸舟圖》就是一幅非合理想象的典型之作。常理，字為字，崖為崖。非常理，字為崖，崖為字，二者可以融合幻化為一。奇趣、異趣也隨之而生。此畫中，畫家將蘇軾《前赤壁賦》全文入畫，以赭墨濃淡變化次第書之，近看為賦，遠觀為崖，重巒疊嶂，深邃幽遠。又於萬仞絕壁之下，浩淼江流之間，勾點扁舟一葉，東坡佇立其端，舉目望月，側耳聆風，曠達超逸，悠然若仙。通觀全卷，史、詩、書、畫渾然一體，天衣無縫。如此奇思佳構，看似妙手偶得，實乃根深底厚，首要之法，就在於非合理想象。

Second, the delight of devising. "The Returning Boat at the Red Cliffs" is a quintessential example of unreasonable imagination. It is ordinary having written characters as written characters and cliffs as cliffs. It is not ordinary having written characters as the cliffs and the cliffs for the written characters and fusing the two into one illusion. Extraordinary and different delight arises. In this painting, the artist integrated the full text of Su Shi’s "the First Rhyme Prose of the Red Cliffs” into the painting. The text was calligraphed in reddish ink.  It is the thyme prose when being viewed up and close, but it is also the cliffs and layered deep mountain ranges when being view from far. Under the steep and tall cliffs, in the vast river, there is a small boat.  Standing at one end, Su Shi lifted his eyes to the moon and listens to the wind. Broad-minded, at ease, and free like an immortal. Throughout the whole work, history, poetry, calligraphy, and painting are seamless and perfectly combined. Such extraordinary concept and structure are seemingly achieved by accidental luck, but in fact deeply rooted in solid foundations with unreasonable imagination as the primary rule.

三為遮蔽之趣。德國戲劇家、文藝批評家、美學家萊辛說：“不該畫出來的，就留給觀眾去想象。一句話，遮蔽是藝術家供奉給美的犧牲。”話中的“遮蔽”，就是指未畫出來的“象外之象”。用流沙河先生的觀點來看，常說的“弦外之音”、“言外之意”隻是一種餘味悠長的情與意，而“象外之象”不是縹緲的情，不是朦朧的意，而是具體的象，不過這個象，畫家為了創造獨特的美感與趣感，故意將其“遮蔽”了，讓其在畫麵中為美而“犧牲”了。前述《伯樂》一畫中的千裏馬，就是畫家為美、為趣將其“遮蔽”了，沒有讓其在畫中露臉，而是讓其在觀者的腦海中神采飛揚。畫中實有之伯樂與畫外虛空想象之千裏馬，組成了非常態的畫麵，變直達為曲達，以有限求無限，趣旨綿長深遠。

The third is the delight of screening. German dramatist, literary critic, and esthetician Lessing once said: "What should not be painted should be left to the imagination of the audience. In one word, screening is the artist's sacrifice to the beauty". The word "screening" refers to the unpainted "imagery outside the image". From the point of view of Mr. Liushahe, what is often said as "the sound outside the strings" and "the meaning outside the sentence" is only a kind of long-lasting lingering emotion and meaning. However, "the imagery outside the image" is not a hazy emotion, nor a dim meaning, but a concrete imagery.  In order to create a unique sense of beauty and delight, the painter deliberately "screens" this imagery and "sacrifices" it for the beauty of the picture. The aforementioned winged steed in the painting "Bole" was thus “screened” by the artist for the beauty and the delight. Instead showing the horse in its body in the painting, the artist lets it glow with health and radiate vigor in the viewers’ minds. There is a real Bole in the painting and imaginary winged steed outside, forming an extraordinary picture, turning direct into indirect, seeking unlimited with what is limited, thus creating long lasting delight.

四為異合之趣。藝術家構思作品時，為了表意的需要，常常將不同性質、不同時空的事物組接在一起，如德國作家、哲學家康德所說的“撮合茫無聯係之觀念，使千裏來相會，得成配偶。”用這種相異的元素交相混成的方式所創造的形象，由於其悖反常情常理，會形成一種奇異的趣感。如西丁的《唐宋八大家》。畫麵中，唐代的韓愈、柳宗元與宋代的歐陽修、蘇洵、蘇軾、蘇轍、王安石、曾鞏，八位巨擘集於一室，交流思想，切磋文章，共商文學革新，推動古文運動的發展。這可能嗎？就說他們中間年令最長者，唐代的韓愈去世一百八十三年後，宋代的歐陽修才出生，而其他人，其中間隔幾乎近兩個半世紀。雖然將生活於不同時代、活動於不同空間的人集於一室有些怪誕，但他們反對文壇上的倚靡浮豔之風，提倡質樸流暢的散文，破駢為散，擴大文言文表達功能的文學主張卻是一致的。在此一意義上，這樣的藝術處理，又怪誕得有據，荒唐得合理。

The fourth is the delight of the impossible. When artists conceptualize their works, they often group together things of different natures and different times and spaces for their expression needs, as German writer and philosopher Kant said: "linking concepts with no connection and coupling them together". The images created by intersecting dissimilar elements and blending them into each other are paradoxically abnormal and thus extraordinarily delightful. Such as in Xiding's "Eight Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties", Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan of the Tang Dynasty and Ouyang Xiu, Su Xun, Su Shi, Su Zhe, Wang Anshi and Zeng Gong of the Song Dynasty gathered in one room to exchange ideas and views on writing, discuss literary innovations and promote the development of classical prose movement. How could this be possible?  Ouyang Xiu of Song Dynasty was born one hundred and eighty three years after Han Yu of the Tang Dynasty died. Some others were living nearly two and a half centuries apart. Although it is a bit strange to gather people living in different times and different spaces in one room, but they did share the same literary ideas of opposing the superficial styles of the time, advocating prudent and smooth essays, breaking away from parallel prose and expanding the literature functions of literary works. In this sense, such an artistic treatment is strange but well-founded, odd but reasonable.

五為逆反之趣。事物的發展或事物的聯係是有序的，而在藝術品的構思中，為了取得奇趣的效果，常會逆反固有序列，使其向性呈倒溯狀。如前文提到的《忘年棋友》。常態：年愈長，經驗愈豐富，技藝愈精熟；年愈幼，經驗愈缺乏，技藝愈生疏。那麽反常態呢？在對弈中西丁讓稚童技高一籌，處於優勢，讓皤然老翁被動應付，處於下風。麵對此情此景，觀者不禁會心一笑。此為逆向構想產生的趣味。

The fifth is the delight of reversion. The development and the connection of things have their orders.  However, artists often reverse the inherent sequence in artwork conceptualization in order to obtain the effect of extraordinary delight.  The aforementioned "Chess Friends between Generations", the norm should be that the old is more experienced and more skillful than the young. The abnormal? In Xiding’s work, the kid is the one with superior skills and the old man is at disadvantage and lands himself in a passive position. The viewer cannot help but smile at this scene. This is the delight from the concept of reversion.

六為移變之趣。時間變化了，位置移動了，處於一個陌生的環境中，也會產生新奇感。今古習俗差異，地域習俗差異，民族習俗差異，都會產生這種新奇的趣感。但這和上述五種異趣不同，這種趣感隻是環境變化產生的新奇感，而不是非合理想象創造的奇異感。在西丁的作品中，有許多題材就是選取有趣感的民間習俗，如《距離美》、《陝西風情》等。

The sixth is the delight of change. Time changes and the location moves. A strange environment can also generate a sense of novelty. The differences between the ancient and the modern, among various regions and ethnic customs all have this sense of novelty. This differs from the above five kinds of delight, for it is caused by environmental changes, rather than a sense of strangeness created by unreasonable imagination. In the works of Xiding, there are many themes that are based on interesting scenes of folk customs, such as "Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder" and "Shaanxi Style".

西丁覓趣，興致盎然；西丁畫作，趣意盎然。

Xiding delightfully seeks delight; and Xiding’s paintings are full of delight.

 

■天巧之構

■ Ingenious Structure

笪重光在論畫麵置陳布勢時曾說過這樣的話：“位置相戾，有畫處多屬贅疣；虛實相生，無畫處皆成妙境。”強調了經營位置，計白當黑的重要性。又說：“得勢則隨意經營，一隅皆是；失勢則盡心收拾，滿幅都非。勢之推挽在於幾微，勢之凝聚由於相度。”這實在是笪重光作畫經驗中甘苦自知的肺腑之言。西丁重視前人的經典畫論，注意汲取前人的創作經驗，在置陳布勢上運籌帷幄，精心經營，巧思獨運，意趣天成。

On the composition of a painting, Da Chongguang once said: "if the location is not cleverly chosen, then the painted places are mostly unsightly spots; if the location is wisely laid out, then the unpainted places are also wonderlands". He emphasized the management of locations and the importance of utilizing unpainted spaces. Da Chongguang also said: "One with the force can be free to operate, and paint correctly everywhere; without the force, then the whole picture is lost regardless how much efforts are dedicated. The effects of the force is determined by tiny factors, and the gathering of the force is from the cohesion". Those are the heartfelt words from Da Chongguang’s first-hand painting practice. Xiding pays attention to his predecessors' classical theory of painting, draws on the experience of his predecessors, and makes concerted efforts in contemplating and setting up his own compositions to achieve ingenious and extraordinary effects.

西丁作品的章法，首要在純一。畫麵純粹，盡去蕪雜，主體突出，主旨鮮明。如同傳統戲曲，演員之外，除了必要道具，一切從略。西丁的畫，從筆墨到章法常用減法。弱水三千，隻取一勺，會收到以少勝多的效果。《伯樂》、《曹雪芹造像》、《達摩》、《鍾馗圖》、《搔癢圖》、《求索》、《杜甫苦吟圖》、《鹿為壽》、《泉聲》等等畫作，處處在在都顯露出他“以少勝多”的美學追求。一些全景圖式的作品，如《海內存知己》、《仙聖相會》等，雖然場景宏闊，但也處理得凝煉而純粹。

The primary principle of Xiding’s works is purity. He keeps the painting pure and weeds out the unnecessary, to highlight and distinguish the main theme. Just as in traditional Chinese stage arts, all but the actors and the necessary props are omitted. Xiding's paintings commonly reduce and minimize the application of the brush strokes and ink, only use the most necessary, and achieves the effect of “less is more”. "Bole", "A Portrait of Cao Xueqin", "Bodhidharmara", "Zhong Kui", "Scratching an Itch", "Seeking", "Du Fu Writing Poems with Painstaking Effort", "Deer for Longevity", "The Sound of a Spring" and many other paintings by Xiding all reveal his “less is more” aesthetic pursuit. Some panorama-style works, such as "An Understanding Friends Afar" and "The Meeting of the Immortal and the Saint", even though the scenes are ambitious, are also handled purely and concisely.

次之為考究。西丁畫作中，會友，清談，品茶，飲酒，對弈，這類場麵不少，畫中常為兩人，而且對麵而坐，這在章法中必然形成軸對稱，畫麵平衡、穩定、祥和、安寧，但如此的構圖，處理不好，會產生單調、板滯之憾。西丁思細慮微，在人物姿態、神態、衣飾、位置上下了不少的功夫，使畫麵統一中有變化，靜態中有動勢。如：一胖一瘦，一高一矮，一俯一仰，一動一靜，一須多一髭少，一清臒一健壯，一豪放一內斂，一衣青一衣黃，一身稍正一身稍斜，一坐石位高一坐石位低，等等，常常在細微處見功夫。但也有用上述方法無法破解軸對稱形成的板正之虞，如《酒逢知己千杯少》，兩友身板直挺，雙臂直伸，相互敬酒，每個人的上半身都形成一個直角，兩個對稱的直角又組成了方正穩定的長方形，而且充塞了畫麵下部三分之一的空間，盡管在酒壺和放置酒壺的石頭上，對位置、體積作了相應的調整，但還是改變不了長方形的板正之感。為使畫麵產生動勢，畫家在畫麵右上方三分之二的麵積上畫了斜伸而下的鬆枝，與右下方幾枝折曲的鬆枝相承接，形成了滿眼蒼翠，鬆風過耳的空間感與空氣流動感，畫麵不隻活了起來，而且產生了濃鬱的詩意。另外，非對稱的圖式在如何取得均衡上他也頗費心思。《泉聲》一畫的置陳布勢也極妙。那條左高右低的雲帶橫亙全畫，如漢隸一筆優美的波磔；左側的山泉在石間覓隙而下，形成許多細碎下垂的折線。雲橫向，慢慢悠悠飄移，泉豎向，曲曲折折下瀉，兩種動勢相交，但一前一後，並未形成衝突，而一寬一窄，一整一碎，一實一虛，反倒形成了多種優美的交插對比。自然，生動，清幽，秀麗。再加之山石大麵積的青黛色對白色雲帶與山泉的反襯，其生動之態、秀麗之姿更為迷人。

The next principle is exquisiteness. In the paintings of Xiding, there are many scenes such as meeting friends, chatting, tasting tea, drinking wine and playing chess, often painted with two people sitting opposite each other.  This naturally leads to symmetry in composition, and a balanced, stable, peaceful, and harmonious picture. But such composition, if poorly handled, could have monotonous and flat effect. Xiding considers all details, and pays close attention to the figures’ gestures, demeanors, clothing, and positions, so that there are variations in the unity of the scene, and dynamic in the static. Such as: one plump and the other slim, one tall and the other short, one staring up and the other looking down, one moving and the other staying, one with thick beard and the other thin, one lean and the other strong, one bold and the other restrained, one clothed in blue and the other yellow, one straight up and the other reclining, one sitting on a stone high and the other low, and so on. The superb skills are often revealed in the meticulous details. However, there are cases where the above methods cannot solve the issue of dullness caused by the symmetrical axis, such as in the case of "A Thousand Toasts are Too Few for a Congenial Friend", there are two friends standing upright, arms straight, and mutually toasting. Each person's upper body forms a right angle, and the two symmetric right angles form a stable and upright rectangular, filling up the lower one third of the space. Although the wine pot and the rocks where it is placed made appropriate adjustments to the location and size, the stiffness of the rectangle is still present. In order to make the picture dynamic, the artist painted slanting pine branches on the two thirds top right of the picture, which is connected with several curved pine branches at the bottom right. This constructs a sense of space full of emerald green color and a sense of airflow of the wind in the pines. The screen becomes not only alive, but also richly poetic. In addition, Xiding also takes efforts to achieve equilibrium in asymmetric schema. "The Sound of a Spring" has a superb layout. The cloud band that is higher on the left and lower on the right runs through the whole picture, just like a beautiful wavy stroke of Li style Calligraphy. The spring on the left finds its way in the gaps of the stones, forming many broken pendant lines. The horizontal clouds drift slowly while the vertical spring twists and turns, and the two different movements intersect each other.  With one in front of the other, they don’t constitute a conflict. Rather one wide and the other narrow, one is full and the other in fragmentation, one touchable and the other void, resulting in a variety of beautiful intercalations and contrasts. Natural, vivid, quiet, and beautiful. With the contract of a large area of ??dark blue color of the mountain stones and the white color of the clouds and the spring, the picture’s vivid state and beautiful composure become even more attractive.

其三為別致。別趣、奇巧也是西丁章法布局中一個藝術特點。《達摩》一畫，其構圖頗似一"仄"字。“仄”字為漢字中的半包圍結構，由左上包圍的“廠”與右下的“人”兩部分組成。而《達摩》一畫中的左與上為石岩，恰是一個"廠(hàn)"字，此字為古象形字，意為上方突出的岩石，其下可居人。右下方的“人”為入靜的達摩。“仄”，原為會意字，指在突出的岩石下高度不夠，不易直立，需脖子傾斜才能進入，因之“仄”為傾斜意。該畫的結構借鑒了"仄"字的結構，一角封堵，一角開放，開合有致。傳說中達摩麵壁為一石洞，若在布局上真要畫成全包圍結構的石洞，那不成了一個“囚”字，畫麵形成封堵閉塞之勢，造成難以呼吸之狀，豈能有美感！西丁取其石窟的左上一角而略去右下一隅，使畫麵有開有合，氣息流通，是為置陣布勢的妙著。南宋山水畫家馬遠、夏圭在章法上常舍棄全景圖式而采用邊角圖式，以偏概全，以少勝多，空靈俊逸，盡得風流。因其“金邊銀角”式的取景而被戲稱為“馬一角”與“夏半邊”。西丁畫中景物的取裁似有其影跡。再者，文字之“文”，本為“紋”義，圖也。象形字初始皆為圖畫，後為表達較為抽象事物之需，才在象形字的基礎上，使用指事、會意、形聲諸法創造了許多逐漸脫離象形的新字，這類字稱為“字”，與象形字之“文(紋)”合稱文字。漢字本身又為方塊，一二維畫麵。在數千年的書寫過程中，人們有意無意間按照形式美的規律對之修飾加工，才有了對稱、均衡、有節奏、有韻律等美感的漢字。所以，漢字的結構與繪畫的章法是相通的。西丁繪畫的章法中能找到漢字結構的影子。再如《鍾馗圖》，人物造型及畫麵結構似有“卜”字的書寫筆勢。那一豎，如同擎天一柱，化作鍾馗的偉岸之身，頂天立地；那一個長點，若用行草來寫，牽絲連線，必然形成劍穗迴環之弧線。筆勢，氣勢，巧妙地合二為一。《求索》一畫圖式頗奇，畫幅中央遽然下伸一枯枝，這樣的布局，易使畫麵呆滯，難以收拾，但枯枝向左一勾，止住了下傾之勢，形成了迴轉，又於迴轉的枝後置以麵左冥思的高士。幅左畸重，於幅右安一大石，如秤砣般維持了全幅的平衡。構圖險峻，穎異。此作又一妙處是畫外似有一雙眼睛，正透過蒼勁虯曲的樹枝注視著畫中的高士，視域又增多了一個層次。

The third principle is uniqueness.  Unique delight and ingeniousness are another artistic character in the layout of the Xiding’s works. The composition of the painting "Bodhidharma" resembles Chinese character "仄". "仄" is of the semi-enclosed structure of Chinese characters, consisting of two parts:  "廠" surrounding the upper left and “人” at the lower right. The left and the top of the painting "Bodhidharma" are rocks, forming the character "廠(pronounced hàn)", which is an ancient pictograph, meaning  protruding rock underneath which people can dwell.  The “人” shape at the bottom right of the painting is Bodhidharma in meditation. "仄", originally an associative compound, refers to that the protruding rock is not high enough for standing straight underneath, and one needs to tilt the neck in order to enter, and so the character "仄" means inclining. The structure of the painting draws on the structure of the character "仄", with one corner closed and one corner open, forming an intriguing structure. Legend has it that Bodhidharma meditated facing walls in a cave. However, if the layout is really a fully encircled structure of a stone cave, then it would become the character "囚” (prisoner), and the general appearance of the picture would be obstructed and closed, feeling difficult to breathe. How can there be any sense of beauty!? Xiding kept the top left corner of the cave and omitted the lower right corner, so that the sense of openness and the sense of closeness co-exist in the picture, and the picture thus has an atmosphere of airflow. It is a wonderful layout. In Southern Song Dynasty, landscape painters Ma Yuan and Xia Gui often preferred, in composition, the side and corner layouts to the panorama style, representing the whole with a part, expressing more with less, free and refined.  They are thus dubbed "Ma the Corner" and "Xia the Side" for their composition methods. It seems that Xiding’s compositions have their traces. Furthermore, the original meaning of character "文" in “文字” (word) is "veins", or, picture. Hieroglyphic characters are all pictographic at the beginning. Later, the needs to express more abstract things, on the basis of the pictographic characters, new words were created via various methods such as simple ideograms, compound ideograms, and phono-semantic compounds. And those new additions are called "字". Together with pictographic characters "文", they are collectively known as “文字”. The Chinese characters are square shaped, two-dimensional pictures. During the process of thousands of years of writing, people have intentionally or unknowingly modified their forms in accordance with aesthetic principles, and formed the Chinese characters of symmetry, balance, tempo, rhythm, and other aesthetic senses. Therefore, the structures of Chinese characters are interconnected with those of painting.  There are traces of structures of Chinese characters in the composition of Xiding’s paintings. Another example is "Zhong Kui", the figure modeling and picture structure resemble the writing manner of the character "卜". That vertical stroke, as a pillar of the sky, turned into the tall and steady body of Zhong Kui; that a long dot stroke, if written in cursive style, with the threading connection, inevitably resembles the looping arc of the sword tassels. The force of the brush and the momentum of the manner are cleverly combined. The painting “Seeking” has a very unique form, a dry branch suddenly stretches down at the center.  A picture such structured tends to be dull and difficult to fix. But here the dry branch crosses to the left, and stops the downward trend, and forms a turn. Behind the revolving branch is the left-facing meditating gentleman. To counter the weight in the left, a large rock in placed in the right, and now the whole picture is balanced. It is a risky and innovative composition. There is another wonderful aspect of this painting’s composition. It seems that there is a pair of eyes on the outside of the painting, gazing through the sturdy and curly branch at the gentleman, adding another level of visual layers.

 

■共生之作

■ Symbiotic Works

 不同生物之間有一種互依互利現象，生物學稱之為“共生”關係 。數十年來，西丁的藝術活動在書法、國畫、漫畫、壁畫間遊弋，其創作呈現出一種相生相成的藝術共生現象。

The phenomenon of the interdependence and mutually benefiting association between certain different organisms is called a “symbiotic” relationship by the biologists.  For decades, Xiding's artistic activities have sailed between calligraphy, traditional Chinese painting, cartoons and murals. His creations have shown a mutually compatible artistic symbiotic phenomenon.

國畫表現手法中常用象征，想象一個象，用其對應畫者的某些難以描繪的思想與情緒。畫殘山剩水，對應國破家亡的悲憤；畫梅蘭竹菊，對應胸中的超逸高潔。而擬象之法，僅見於不多的國畫作品中，如八大山人的《孔雀圖》，齊白石的《不倒翁》。兩畫的表現手法均為擬物，孔雀代等待上朝的官員，玩具不倒翁代腐敗官員。由於其構思方法不同於一般國畫，畢克官甚至將之歸類於漫畫。但從古至今，在難以計數的國畫作品中，未見如西丁《赤壁歸舟圖》這樣將歌賦擬為畫。文字擬為崖石，這種以物擬物的手法與西丁構思時的思維機製有很大的關係。“奇巧”是漫畫構思的關鍵，“象”要“奇”，表“意”要“巧”。“象”不“奇”，其味寡淡，甚或不成其為漫畫，因其沒有具備區別於其他畫種的基本特征；表“意”不“巧”，不能很好地與“象”契合，這個創作就很難成立。西丁數十年的漫畫創作活動，強化了其漫畫構思的思維方式，擴展了其覓求“奇巧”效果的形象思維的能力，《赤壁歸舟圖》中“奇巧”的藝術處理不能說與此沒有關係。一個畫家能在不同的繪畫領域裏進行藝術創作，這不隻不會相礙，反而會相因相成，互生共榮。

Traditional Chinese painting techniques commonly use symbols. The artist imagines an image to correspond to the thoughts and emotions difficult to directly describe. Painting ravaged scenery to correspond to the grief of invaded homeland and broken home; painting plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum to correspond to freedom, nobility, and purity. However, the method of simulacrum has only been seen in a small number of Chinese paintings, such as Badashanren’s “Peacocks” and Qi Baishi's "Roly-poly". The expressive methods of the two paintings are both simulacrum, with peacocks in the place of officials waiting on the court and the roly-poly in the place of corrupted officials. The method applied in these paintings is so different from the traditional Chinese painting that Bi Keguan classified them as cartoons. However, from ancient times to the present, among the countless Chinese paintings, there has never been a work like Xiding's "The Returning Boat at the Red Cliffs", where the entirety of a rhyme prose is modeled to be the picture and the texts are modeled to be a cliff. This method of simulating objects with objects has a profound relationship with the thinking mechanism in Xiding’s conception. "Ingenuity" is the key to conception of cartoons. The "imagery" ought to be "singular", and the expression of "meaning" ought to be "clever".  If the "imagery" is not "singular", then it is tasteless, and even cannot be considered as cartoons, because it lacks the basic characteristics distinct from other types of paintings. If the expression of "meaning" is not "clever" and match well with the "imagery", then this creation is very difficult to set up. The decades of Xiding's cartoon creation activities have strengthened his way of thinking in cartoon ideas and expanded his ability to seek the imagery of "ingenious" effect. The “ingenious” artistic treatment in "The Returning Boat at the Red Cliffs" are related to this. An artist who can create art in different fields of painting does not impede each other, but rather benefit from different fields and have symbiotic effect.

西丁國畫作品中的醇厚意趣與其漫畫思維能力相關，那麽其風格獨特的漫畫作品更得益於他的書法、國畫功力。西丁少時專注於書法、國畫的學習，後又廣涉中國文學、史學、哲學各種典籍。承巴山蜀水的滋養，受漢賦唐詩的浸潤，他的才智、情思、意趣深蘊著中國傳統文化的基因，如同一個人的遺傳基因無法更改一樣，浸潤進血液骨髓裏的文化基因也難以消彌。西丁的漫畫，個性獨具，卓爾不群，掩其名亦知何人所為。究其根柢，還是源於他國畫與書法的長期修練。沒有個性獨具的國畫家、書法家西丁，也就沒有卓爾不群的漫畫家西丁。他是以其獨具個性的水墨語匯、書法語匯進行他的漫畫表達。猶如一枝紅杏伸出牆外，國畫家西丁的藝術活動伸入了漫畫的地界。西丁的漫畫藝術活動時間跨度很大，從一九五三年進報社畫漫畫至二千年年尾《美術辭林·漫畫藝術卷》脫稿出版，時近半個世紀。在這將近五十年的時間裏，他的漫畫創作有兩個活躍期：一為一九五三年至一九六五年報社工作期間；二為一九七九年至一九九五年美協工作期間。前一個活躍期，配合新聞報刊的任務，配合各種政治運動進行創作；後一個活躍期，已處於十年動亂後的思想解放期，獨立思考，有感而發，為創作主因。半個世紀，時移世遷，是也非也，曆史自會評說，藝術作品也難以例外。但作為諷刺幽默藝術的漫畫，有些涉及人性弱點題材的作品，似乎有一定的永恒性。如西丁的漫畫作品《心胸》。心胸狹隘，妒賢嫉能，不能容人共事，這一人品修養上的缺憾古已有之，非獨今人。曹操殺楊修，即為一例。曹令建一園，園成，請曹視之。曹繞園一周不語，隻於園門書一“活”字。楊悟到門中一“活”必為“闊”，命工匠將門改窄。曹口稱甚好，心甚忌之。楊修過於聰明，競能猜透曹操設的難題，埋下禍根。妒嫉若此，令人吃驚。遇此般事，楊若一臉傻相，故作不懂，獨顯曹丞相高明，或可撿回一條性命。嫉妒這一人性中的弱點千年後依然會有，依然需要對其批評諷刺，因之說《心胸》一畫的題材有其永恒性。少些應景，多些沉思，藝術品才不會短命。這也是《心胸》一畫留給藝術家們值得深思的一個問題。什麽是傳世之作？應該是那些穿越曆史時空依然能引起人的精神共鳴，給人啟迪，給人教益，給人美感享受的作品。回到《心胸》這一作品本身，此畫，作者以意造象，心胸狹窄，不能容人共事，這一思想品質問題在畫家筆下轉化為生理上的畸形結構。魁梧大丈夫，奇窄小胸腔，人物的心態、氣度被表現得淋漓盡致。辛辣的嘲諷，尖說的批評寓於怪誕滑稽的形象之中。在塑造人物形象時，進行了大幅度的變形，但變得自然合理，強化了主題的表達。尤其是畫家善於傳神的妙筆對人物神態的刻畫，你看，那兩顆向上斜瞅的眼珠子和那不屑一顧向下撇的嘴唇，微妙而深刻地揭示出此公的精神世界。再如《提吧!》。法國啟蒙思想家孟德斯鳩在《論法的精神》一書中曾說：“不受製約的權力必然產生腐敗。”以權謀私，貪汙受賄，是經濟上的腐敗；操權弄權，壓製批評，打擊報複是組織上的腐敗。人們在社會生活中，有時會遇到這樣的上司：一臉謙虛之態可掬，但骨子裏卻剛愎自用，老子天下第一，若對他口中“多提寶貴意見”的謙詞信以為真，你必然會大倒其黴。看看《提吧！》的畫麵，人與彈嫁接組合，瞥一眼那怪異的形象，心似乎都會緊緊揪起，躲之惟恐不及，誰人還敢觸動那招致橫禍的意見簿？歡迎批評、接受監督成了幌子，壓製意見，打擊報複成了本性，在此君治下，群眾能不噤若寒蟬？專製霸道，可以阻斷諤諤之言，可以馴化阿諛之輩，惟獨不能開創暢所欲言，民主健康的局麵。命題何其深刻，語言何其凝練，擬人的形象又何其詭奇而自然。這隻能得之於畫家的苦心孤詣，匠心獨運。此作譏刺的現象，古往今來，域內域外，上上下下哪裏沒有發生過？可見這一題材也是有其永恒性的，不受限製的權力使人性異化這一現象不消失，譏刺這一現象的藝術作品不會失去藝術魅力！作品能否抽繹出人類情感上共通、共同的東西並予以藝術地表達，這是藝術品生命力可否持久的關鍵。《未卜先知》也是針對人性中的弱點進行善意調侃的佳作。算命者連自己被小偷掏包這麽要緊的事都算不出來，豈能預測別人命運吉凶？由於人類未知領域太多，常常陷於苦悶與盲目，期望得到明晰的解釋，但千萬不能相信那些所謂的先知先覺，更不能讓他們操縱自己的命運。在藝術表現上，西丁讓“神算”遇上“神偷”，兩“神”相遇，誰更“神”？這個“奇巧”勁讓人不禁啞然失笑。

The rich delightfulness of Xiding paintings is related to his ability of cartoon thinking, and his unique cartoon works benefit from his calligraphy and Chinese painting skills. When he was young, Xiding focused on learning calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting. Later, he studied extensively Chinese literature, history, and philosophy books. Nurtured by mountains and waters of Sichuan and influenced by Han rhyme proses and Tang poems, his intellect, emotions, and moods are deeply rooted in the genes of Chinese traditional culture. Just as a person's genes cannot be changed, the cultural genes infiltrating into the marrow and blood are also hard to eliminate. Xiding’s cartoons are unique and preeminent. Even if the artist’s name were covered, the creator could still be identified.  The root is the long time practice of Chinese painting and calligraphy.  The outstanding cartoonist Xiding owns his existence to the unique Chinese painter and calligrapher Xiding. His expressions in cartoons are based on his unique language of the ink and wash, and calligraphy. Like a red apricot sticking over the wall, the artistic activity of the painter Xiding stretches into the field of cartoons. Xiding's cartoon art activities spanned a long period of time, ranging nearly half a century, from 1953 when he started drawing cartoon strips at a newspaper to the publication of the "Fine Arts Encyclopedia - Cartoon Art Volume" at the end of 2000. During nearly fifty-years, his cartoon creation has two active periods: one is from 1953 to 1965 when he worked for a publisher; the other is from 1979 to 1995 when he worked at China Artists Association. In the first active period, the works were created to accomplish the tasks for the newspaper and periodicals, in cooperation with various political movements. The second was in the period of ideological liberation after the Cultural Revolution. Independent thoughts and expressions were the main creative forces. There are many changes in that half a century. The history will be the judge, including judging art works. Cartoon is an art of caricature and humor, and some cartoon works that deal with the theme of human weakness seem to have certain eternal meanings. Such as Xiding's cartoon work "Capacity of Tolerance". (Translator’s note: The Chinese title of the cartoon is literally “Heart and Breast”.  The Chinese expression for “narrow minded” is literally “of narrow heart and breast”.) All through history, there have been people with the character shortcoming of being narrow minded, of being envious of people of worth and ability, of being intolerant. The killing of Yang Xiu by Cao cao is such an example. Cao Cao commissioned the building of a garden, and paid a visit upon the completion.  He walked around the garden without a word, and then only wrote a character “活” on the door. Yang Xiu realized that “活” in the middle of the door (“門”) would be “闊” (wide), and had the craftsmen narrow the door. Although Cao Cao praised it, in his mind Cao Cao was very jealous of Yang Xiu for being so clever that he could quickly solve Cao Cao’s puzzle.  This laid up trouble for Yang Xiu’s future with fatal consequence.  It is surprising that Cao Cao could be so jealous. Had Yang Xiu pretended to be slow and incapable of solving Cao Cao’s puzzle, then Cao Cao would have appeared to be brilliant and Yang Xiu might have avoided the tragic end. Jealousy, this weakness in humanity, will probably still be around in the next millennium, and thus still needs to be criticized. Therefore, the theme of "Capacity of Tolerance" has its permanent meaning. Artworks can have long lives if they are done with more thoughts and less for the occasion. This is also a question that "Capacity of Tolerance" posts for artists to ponder over. What artworks will be handed down to posterity? They should be those that can stand the test of time and space and still spiritually resonant with people, enlighten people, provide lessons and aesthetic enjoyment to people. Back to "Capacity of Tolerance". In this cartoon, the author created imagery from ideas, turning the character shortcoming of being narrow minded (“narrow heart and breast” in Chinese expression), and of being intolerant, into a physiological deformed structure: a burly big man with an oddly narrow chest. The character's mood and attitude are most vividly demonstrated. Pointed criticism lies in the grotesque image. In shaping the image of the character, a deformation is applied, substantial but natural and reasonable, and thus strengthening the theme of expression. In particular, under the artist’s vivid and wonderful brush, the figure’s portrayal, such as the sidelong glance and those disdaining lips, subtly and profoundly reveals the character’s spiritual world. Another example is "Carry On!". In his book “De l'esprit des lois”, Montesquieu, the French enlightenment thinker, once said: "Uncontrolled power will inevitably lead to corruption." The abuse of power for personal gains, embezzlement and bribery, are economic corruption; manipulation of power, suppression and retaliation of criticism are organizational corruption. Sometimes people in social life encounter such a boss: a humble face but self-willed and self-centered.  Anyone who trusts in his modest words inviting for "more valuable criticisms" will inevitably get into big trouble. In "Carry On! “ a quick glance at the strange imagery of the combination of human form and a grenade would make anyone nervous, worried, and frightened. One should run for cover, and who dares to touch the suggestion book that would lead to nothing but trouble? Welcoming criticism and overseeing is used as a guise, and repression and retaliation become the nature.  How could people under him not keep silence out of fear? Autocracy and hegemony can block the words of grudges and can domesticate sycophants, but you can never open up a healthy prospect of free expression and democracy. Such profound proposition, such concise language, and such strange yet natural anthropomorphic image. This can only be achieved from extraordinarily painstaking efforts and consummate craftsmanship. The phenomenon this cartoon ridicules exists all the time and everywhere, thus the theme has an eternal relevance. As long as the alienation of humanity by the unrestricted power does not disappear, artworks ridiculing this phenomenon will not lose the artistic charm! For the vitality of an artwork to last long, the key is whether the work can deduce commonality from human emotions and convey it artistically. "Having Foreknowledge" is another excellent work ridiculing with well-meaning for a weakness in human nature. The fortune-teller cannot even foresee that his own wallet is being stolen by a pickpocket. How can he predict the future of others? There are too many unknown areas for humankind, we are often in depression and blindness, hoping to have a clear explanation. But we must not believe in those so-called prophecies, nor allow them to manipulate our own destiny. In the artistic expression, Xiding arranged the meeting of a master fortune teller with a master thief. Now which is the greater master? Seeing this clever “coincidence”, viewers cannot help but laugh.

在西丁的國畫作品中能看到如同漫畫般追求“奇巧”構思的影子，在西丁的漫畫作品中又能看到如同國畫般對人物神態的精微刻劃；在西丁的國畫作品中能看到漫畫表現手法的巧妙運用，在西丁的漫畫作品中又能看到國畫、書法筆墨語言的表達。這種不同藝術品類之間的互動有利於新的藝術品質的生成。

In Xiding's traditional Chinese painting works, there are signs of pursuing of ingenuity as in cartoons; and in Xiding's cartoons, there are subtle depictions of the demeanors and characters of the figures like in a Chinese painting. In Xiding's traditional Chinese painting works, there are the clever applications of cartoon expression techniques; and in Xiding’s cartoons, there are brush and ink language expressions of traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy. The interactions between different art genres are conducive to the birth of new artistic qualities.

這種藝術共生現象也反映在西丁的壁畫創作中。一九八九年，西丁為西安市政府賓館“西京飯店"創作了一幅壁畫，其長二十五米，其高二米又二十公分，畫材使用亞蔴布、丙烯顏料，畫題為《長安瑰寶》。在內容上容納了上起藍田猿人，中經周秦漢唐，下至明代城牆，西安市內及周邊遺存的二十四個景點。在技法上寫意、寫實並用，中法、西法融合。從內容到形式，巧妙地處理好了諸多關係，是曆史遺址題材創作上的成功探索。

This artistic symbiotic phenomenon is also reflected in Xiding's mural creation. In 1989, Xiding created a mural for Xi'an municipal government hotel "Xijing Hotel". The mural, titled “Gems of Chang’an”, is 25 meters in length and 2.2 meters in height, made of linens and acrylic paints. The content presents 24 scenic spots and historical sites in and around the city of Xi’an, from Lantian ape-man, through Zhou, Qin, Han, Tang Dynasties, to the Ming Dynasty city walls. Both freehand and realistic techniques were applied, and Chinese and western painting styles were combined. From the content to the form, many relationships were ingeniously handled. It is a successful exploration of artistic creation with the theme of historical sites.

曆史遺址蘊含著豐富的人文內容，創作時，是單一的再現遺址還是揭示出其蘊含的豐富人文內容？西丁的藝術處理是：突出人文內容，突出人文精神，以人物為主體，以遺址為背景，遺址終歸是古人活動的場所，人的活動應是主體內容。既如此，在畫麵上具體怎樣表現？遺址，有實在的遺存物，如碑、塔、墓葬及其出土物等，而古代人物，常有文字資料可查，但唯獨圖象資料很少且不精確。搞造型藝術而缺形象資料，這是個棘手問題。西丁的解決辦法是寫意，從曆史資料記載中，從文學作品描述中意會想像要表現的人物，以意象代之。隨之而來的是作為人物背景的遺址景觀如何畫？總不能畫成“似與不似之間”的意象？遊人如何與實物對照辨識？對此，西丁巧妙地將寫意與寫實兩種表現手法統一與一體：人物，寫意；背景，寫實。既有描繪人物寬闊的想象空間，也有寫實的遺址景觀可供對照識辨。壁畫中所涉及的人物有人文初祖黃帝，一統天下胤政；道家始祖李耳，佛家法師玄奘；史學巨擘司馬遷，藥學翹楚孫思邈；驃騎將軍霍去病，妙道天尊呂洞賓……這些人物，無一不是在中華文明史上有過重大貢獻和影響的人物，在人們心目中無一不顯得偉岸與沉雄，為了突出人們這種心理上的感受，西丁在人物造型上運用了變形的手法，使人物軀幹闊大、壯碩，並飾之以寬袍大袖，這都增強人物的體積與分量，有利於偉岸、沉雄感覺的表達。在畫法上采用中國繪畫的工筆重彩輔之以西畫的素描與色彩關係處理，使線描融入體塊之中，增強了物象的厚重感。在人物神態的刻劃上也頗費了番心思，如秦始皇的威儀，周幽王的顢頇，老子的冥思，藥王的勤勉，玉環的豐腴，褒姒的纖麗，空海的虔誠，呂祖的超然，石匠的低首凝視，畫工的舉筆端詳，拉弓者的勁膂，逐鹿者的強悍……形態分殊，情神各異。背景的景觀力求真實，透視關係、素描關係、色彩關係均以寫實的手法處理。分散於各處的二十四個景點又怎麽統一於一幅畫麵上呢？西丁從兩個方麵加強了景觀之間的聯係：一是以光環形成環環相扣，既為瑰寶，必有光彩，使光彩交相輝映；二是統一色調，以橙黃色為主調，間以青灰色，既有渭河平原上黃土的原色，亦有秦磚漢瓦的灰色，色彩的處理有濃烈的象征意蘊。西丁的《長安瑰寶》真力彌滿，行氣如虹，沉雄，恢宏，與其水墨作品的空靈超逸形成了強烈對比。

Historical sites are rich in humanism contents. Should the artistic creation simplys replicate the relic sites or reveal its wealth of humanism contents? Xiding’s artistic processing is: highlighting the humanism content, highlighting the humanism spirit, using figures as the principal part and the sites as the background.  After all, the sites are the places of the ancients' activities, and thus the human activities should be the principal content. Then, how to express on the painting? There are real artifacts at the historical sites, such as the monument, the pagodas, the tombs and archaeological finds, etc.  While the written records of ancient characters can be found, the image records are very few and inaccurate. It is a thorny issue to engage in plastic arts without image information. Xiding’s solution to the problem is freehand method, to capture the essence of the characters, to represent the figures with conceptual imagery based on studies of historical records and literary descriptions. Then the issue is how to paint the historical sites, the background of the figures?  The sites cannot be conceptual imagery that is between “resembling” and “not resembling”.  Or the tourists cannot recognize the actual places. To resolve this issue, Xiding ingeniously integrated freehand and realistic expression methods: freehand for figures and realistic for background, providing wide space for imagination in character depictions and realistic landscape of the sites to be identified. The figures depicted in the mural include Emperor Huang, the founder of China, Ying Zheng (Qin Shi Huang), who united China, Li Er, the founder of Taoism,  Xuan Zang, the Buddhist master, Sima Qian, the grand historian, Sun Simiao, the medicine master, Huo Qubing,  the famed general,  Lu Dongbin, the eminent Taoist … They are all characters that made significant contributions and had great influence in the history of Chinese civilization, and in people’s mind, they are all magnificent and imposing. In order to highlight this psychological experience, Xiding applied transformation techniques in the character modeling, designing the figures broad and sturdy, and decorated with wide robes and sleeves, thus enhancing the sizes and weights of the characters, to achieve the sense of magnificence and significance. The painting method adopted a Chinese painting style of exact delineation and enriched colors, with complementation by the sketch and color relationship techniques of the western painting, so that the line drawing can be integrated into the blocks to enhance weighty feeling of the images. Xiding also invested a great amount of thinking In the demeanors of the characters, such as the dignity of Qin Shi Huang, the incompetence of King You of Zhou, Lao Tzu's meditation, Medicine King's diligence, Yang Yuhuan’s full figure, Bao Si’s delicate beauty, Konghai’s piousness, Lu Dongbin’s transcendence, the mason’s focus with his head bowed, the painter's attention with his brush raised, the archer's strength, the deer hunter’s toughness ... ... distinct forms and various expressions. On the other hand, the landscapes in background were sought to be realistic, with perspective, sketch, and color relations all being handled in a realistic way.  How to integrate twenty-four scattered sites in one picture? Xiding strengthened the connections between landscapes from two aspects. One is the formation of connected halo links for gems to radiate and reflect luster among each other. The other is the uniform tone, with orange and yellow as the key tone, and dotted with graphite grey color, representing both the primary color of the yellow earth on Weihe Plain and the grey color of Qin bricks and Han tiles. Thus the color processing has a strong symbolic meanings. Xiding's "Gems of Chang’an" is full of true force and energy, imposing and magnificent, and has a significant contract to the ethereal ease in his ink and wash works.

西丁遊弋於各個畫種之間，到了隨心所欲的境界。其由來，一是博，知識積累豐厚，基本功紮實全麵；二是化，舉一反三，觸類旁通，融匯化合，創出了一派新氣象。李鴻秋先生對西丁多方麵的藝術才華給予了高度的評讚：“他那高超、獨特的天賦，隻要給一點點條件，甚至隻要他願意，他畫什麽是什麽；畫什麽都能收獲充滿個性的驚人的成就。正所謂‘金鱗豈是池中物，稍得風雷便化龍’。”

Xiding cruises in various kinds of paintings, achieving the state of following his own inclinations. The first source is breadth, rich and deep knowledge accumulation and comprehensive and solid basic skills; the second source is integration, drawing inferences, comprehending by analogy,  combining and integrating together, to create a unique new style. Mr. Li Hongqiu highly praised many aspects of Xiding's artistic talent: "His superb and unique talent can paint anything, with a tiny bit of conditions or even just as he wishes. Anything he paints can result in amazing achievements. Just as the saying goes 'the one with golden scales is not destined for the pool, and with a little wind and thunder it transforms to a dragon' ".

綜觀西丁的各類繪畫創作，時時處處總顯露出一種反雷同化、反類同化的美學追求，不追浪，不趕潮，不湊堆，不結夥，或踽踽而行，或靜靜思考，所出作品常常閃射出一股殊光異彩。

A comprehensive survey of Xiding’s paintings always shows an aesthetic pursuit of anti-assimilation and counter-stereotype. He does not chase the trends, nor join the crowd, nor form a group.  Exploring on his own, or meditating quietly. His works often radiate shimmering splendor of uniqueness.

他的書法，也著意迴避一些程式化的東西，而在傾仄險峻裏尋求新的和諧與均衡，猶如舊體詩詞裏的用險韻，專在艱避之處下功夫。但反常求趣需受合道的製約，若無深厚的功力及對美學規律的深入理解是難以駕馭的。反常易，合道難，反常合道則更難。西丁知難而進，標新而不逾矩，立異而有根柢。其運筆，順逆藏露隨意轉換；其用墨，枯潤濃淡應心而生；其結體，字形忽扁忽長，重心忽左忽右，常避方正對稱易生的呆與滯，力造傾仄偏斜中的新均衡；其分行布白，忽偃忽仰，忽疏忽密，不平中求平，不正中求正，不勻中求勻，不同中求同，平正奇變，相反相成。通觀全篇，鱗羽參差，妙變無窮，波瀾起伏，詭譎靈動，卷中異彩燦然，筆下傳統延衍。西丁父子曾為中國電信設計企業形象標識，其中的“中國電信”四字即是他的手跡，由於標識接受者的公眾性，這四字他又寫得沉穩端莊，剛健遒勁，從中可以看出其書法功力的另一麵。

His calligraphy works also deliberately avoid stylization, and search for new harmony and balance in the unconventional and the risky, like selecting a difficult rhyme in traditional poetic verses, to labor purposely in a difficult condition. However, seeking unconventional delight is subject to the constraints of the way of art. Without deep skills and in-depth understanding of the laws of aesthetics, it is unmanageable. It is easy to be unconventional, but difficult to confirm with the way of art, and even more difficult to seek unconventional delight and confirm with the way of art. Xiding presses forward despite difficulties, starting the new without violating the basics, creating the original on the solid foundations. His way with the brush freely converts among all calligraphy methods such as flowing, reverting, concealing and revealing; and with ink, dry, moist, thick and thin, at will.  For the structures, he freely mixes flat and long shapes and shifts the gravity center of the characters left and right, often avoids symmetry which can easily lead to dullness and stiffness, and seeks a new balance in the tilt and the deviation. For the distribution, he blends low and high, sparse and dense, seeks balance and center in the uneven, harmony in the various, and transforms and unifies among the opposites. Viewing the work in its entity, there are ingenious variations in all different layers and various levels, with wonderful momentums and dynamics, in a scroll of both unique brilliance and the extension of the tradition. Xiding and his sons designed the corporate image logo for China Telecom, and Xiding calligraphed the characters "China Telecom". Because of the requirement for mass acceptance of a logo, he calligraphed the characters in a steady, dignified and vigorous style, demonstrating yet another aspect of his calligraphy skills.

 

■美學之思

■ Aesthetic Thoughts

在審美活動中，作為審美主體的藝術家要欣賞美、創造美，需有自己的審美標準與主張；沒有自己美學觀點的藝術家，不可能是個好藝術家。西丁的藝術創造活動能夠成功的關鍵，在於有自己獨到的藝術主張並實踐之。

In the aesthetic activities, an artist, as the aesthetic subject, ought to have his/her own aesthetic standards and ideas to appreciate and create beauty. An artist without his/her aesthetic views cannot be a good artist. The key to the success of Xiding's artistic creation activities is having his own unique artistic ideas and practicing them.

●尋無，首先是藝術思維上的艱苦探索。

● The first step of seeking non-being is the arduous exploration in artistic thinking.

作為畫家，創作之始遇到的首要問題是將什麽作為自己的表現對象，這決定於畫家的審美判斷力。在中國古典美學中將之稱為“識”，“識力”。清代詩人袁枚有個妙喻：“學如弓弩，才如箭鏃，識以領之，方能中鵠。”形象地說明了“識”的重要性。唐代畫家、書畫理論家張彥遠也曾說過：“非夫神邁識高，情超心慧者，豈可議乎知畫？”將“識力”提到了一個很高的位置，認為審美判斷力不高的人，是談不上懂畫的。那麽一個畫家“識力”不高，豈能判斷出自己所選題材審美價值的高低？其次，確定了畫什麽，接著而來的是怎麽畫，怎麽設置、營構畫中的人物、場景、情節之類。畫什麽，怎麽畫，整個過程離不開“識高”與“心慧”，亦即一個藝術家的藝術"悟性"。西丁對此有清醒的認識，他在談及幽默與智慧的關係時也曾有個妙喻：“幽默說：我生產開心。智慧說：我是老板。”智慧在創作中的統領作用他闡發得生動而深刻。藝術思維是形象思維、邏輯思維、靈感思維協動的一個思維綜合體，哪一個環節能離開智慧？因之，思考的深度常常決定作品品位的高度。對一個美術家來說，用心畫還是用手畫，其結果往往天壤之別。繪者，應該是一個慧者，智慧地畫，機智地畫，巧妙地畫；而不是機械地畫，無動於衷地畫，依從習慣或程式畫。西丁勤於思考，善於動腦的創作實踐充分說明這一道理。在創作理論與實踐上，他還發揮了他的老師李有行先生的“經意於不經意中”的辨證觀點，提出了“隨意之象乃刻意而成，所以要把功夫下在隨意上。”隨意之象需得刻意而為，刻意經營需得隨意而出，似為隨意，實則艱辛，內裏用功，外顯輕鬆。他的夫子自道說出他創作的訣竅，看似率性而為的筆墨揮灑，看似寥寥數筆的傳神之象，看似妙手偶得的藝術處理，那都是下筆之前動了番腦筋，下了番功夫得來的，決不是偶發的，一蹴而就的。“識高”，“心慧”，是他“尋無”尤為著力之處。他曾說：“欣賞一幅畫，看它有沒有靈氣。反之，就是匠氣。匠氣，就是沒有靈魂，就是僵化，沒有生氣。靈氣，是睿智升華結晶的產物。靈氣就是把畫畫活了。”又說：“每欲畫一張畫，或寫幅字，我都有一種敬畏感，馬上凝重起來，作上陣準備。當然也不是緊張，但也不是輕鬆，思維立即啟動起來，準備迎戰。”他曾有幅丈二之作，上為長短、粗細、濃淡、幹濕不同的兩根線條，題識為石濤的畫語錄：濃淡、肥瘦、長短、粗細即美也。這顯然是他沿著中國古典美學家的思路在不斷思索有關形式美的辯證規律。

As a painter, the first question encountered at the beginning of creation is the selection of the object. This is determined by the artist's aesthetic judgment. In Chinese classical aesthetics it is called "discerning" and "discernment". Yuan Mei, a Qing Dynasty poet, had a wonderful analogy: "Learning is like a crossbow, and talent an arrow. Only with the lead of discernment, one can hit the target". This vividly illustrates the importance of "discernment". Zhang Yanyuan, a Tang Dynasty painter and calligrapher, once said: "Only those with superb spirits, superior discernment, high emotions, and clever mind are able to know painting", elevating “discernment” to a very high position, asserting that those without superior discernment cannot understand painting. A painter cannot determine the level of aesthetic values of the selected materials without high discernment.  Secondly, after determining what to paint, what follows is how to paint, how to set up and construct the characters, scenes and plots in the painting. What to paint and how to paint, the whole process is inseparable from "discernment" and "clever mind", that is, a painter's artistic "comprehension power". Xiding has a clear understanding of this and had a wonderful metaphor upon discussing the relationship between humor and wisdom: "Humor said: I produce fun. Wisdom said: I am the boss".  He elaborated vividly and profoundly the leading role of wisdom in the artistic creation. Artistic thinking is a thinking complex in which imagery thinking, logical thinking and inspiration thinking are coordinated. Which link can be without wisdom? Because of this, the depth of thinking often determines the level of a work's taste. For an artist, painting with heart or painting with hand, the results are often extremely different. A painter should be a wise person, painting with wisdom, wittiness and cleverness; rather than painting mechanically and indifferently, simply following habits or process. Xiding’s creative practice with diligent thinking fully illustrates this truth. In the creative theory and practice, he also developed the dialectical view of his teacher Li Youxing, "advertent in the inadvertent", and put forward the idea that "free expression is achieved advertently, so we should take advertent effort in free expression". Free expression needs to be achieved deliberately, and deliberate activity needs to be free. It seems free, but in fact difficult. Great effort wrapped in easy appearance. His words based on first-hand practice reveals the key to his way of creation: seemingly straightforward swaying of the brush, seemingly just a few strokes to create vivid images, seemingly by luck to obtain the wonderful artifice, all these, are the results of deep thinking and great efforts, and by no means are accidental and effortless. In order to seek non-being, Xiding exerts in "superior discernment" and "clever mind". He once said: "To appreciate a picture is to see if it has aura.  Without aura, a painting is only of unimaginative craftsmanship.  Unimaginative craftsmanship is without a soul, is rigid, and is without vitality. Aura, is a product of crystallization and sublimation of wisdom.  Aura is to paint vividly”. And he also added: "Every time I paint or calligraph, I have a sense of awe and immediate dignification, preparing for the battle.  It is certainly not being nervous, but neither being relaxed.  My thoughts are activated, ready to meet the challenges”. He painted a work of several meters in length, with two lines different in length, thickness, shades, wet and dry, entitled with a quote by Shi Tao on painting: it is beauty having different shades, breadth, length, thickness. This is obviously his continued meditation on the beauty of forms along the path of Chinese classical aesthetics.

●有無相生，無中生有。

● Being and non-being create each other, and for being to rise out of non-being.

尋無齋主人自道：“既然沒有，你還尋什麽？我說，因為沒有我才去尋，尋到了，就有了嘛！”又說：“集百家之長此法固然高超，但卻是人家的貨色，別人的精華，卻沒有自己的東西，再好也是人家的。而藝術之稀缺者乃百家之無。”尋前人之無，尋他人之無，尋已有之無，實為尋自己之有，自己未有，創造自己之所有。前人之無，他人之無，是自己創造的參照係，專在無處動腦筋，專在無處下功夫，變前人他人之無為自己之有。這個過程，不求同，而求異；不相向而行，而背道獨馳；不重複建設，產能過剩，而獨鍾創意，主打稀有。藝術生產，隻產孤品；批量生產，絕非藝術。

The master of “Xunwu Studio” (“Seeking Non-being Studio”) said himself: “If there is non-being, then what to seek?!  I would say that I seek exactly because that there is non-being.  Once found, then there is being!" And furthermore: “The method of ‘gathering together all that is good’ is superb, but the outcome is the goods of others. The best of others is not your own, no matter how good it is. The scarcity of art is what all others do not have". Seeking non-being of the predecessors, seeking non-being of the others, and seeking non-being of one’s own, are actually seeking being of one’s own. What one does not have creates what one has. The non-being of the predecessors and the others is the frame of reference for one’s creation. Focusing the thoughts and efforts at non-being, and turning non-being of the predecessors and the others into the being of one’s own. This process is not to assimilate, but rather seek differences; not move towards each other, but go off in a different direction; not duplicate and overproduce the same, but uniquely innovate and specialize in rarity. Art creation only results in unique item; the mass produced is never art.

●審美主體的歸位

“每個人出生時都是原創，漸漸地有的成了複製品。”人也可能異化：我，異化為他者；人，異化為工具。異化的生成，與“去我”相關，而“去我”亦可能為被動亦可能為主動。被動者，社會因素所為，諸如思想壟斷、拜金之風昌熾、獨立精神退化；主動者，個人糊塗所致，諸如迷戀某股風潮，崇拜什麽權威，沉溺某種幻境。而藝術上的“去我”常與對藝術的本質缺少深入理解相關。如前所述，若失去藝術上的清醒，好的東西也會成為陷阱，致使追慕者成為俘虜而失卻藝術探索與創造的主動性。這時，“去我”現象就會產生，我就會外化為他者。我之手，我之腦，為他人所役；我之筆，我之墨，為他人所限。不過，藝術大師們早就有過警告：“似我者死。”隻是看為藝者能否悟透。世界上尚且“沒有兩片完全相同的的樹葉”，更何況最具智慧、最具豐富情感的人。著名作家俞平伯與朱自清同遊秦淮河，其後二人又以《槳聲燈影裏的秦淮河》為題，各寫了篇散文，但風格不同，立意有別，各美其美，皆成名篇。何以然？人成長的環境不可能完全一樣，人接受的教育不可能完全無異，人各種感官的反應不可能完全一致，人的思維向度不可能完全相同，更不要說悄然而來，倏忽而逝的奇思妙想，更不要說細微而難以察覺的情緒波動。何以要放棄獨特的自我，而去充當別人的贗品？有句話說得好：“人生最大的災難，就是在眾人的喧囂聲中迷失自己。”藝術的本質既然是創造而非製造，作為審美主體的創造者如果缺位，藝術品怎能產生？藝術創作最需個性，最忌雷同，如果審美主體成了通用件、標準件的生產者，藝術必然凋零。從這個意義上講，尋無，是尋“已無”之我，丟失之我，異化之我，要找回原我，找回個性。即我的回歸。

"Everyone is original at birth, and some of them are gradually become pirated". People may also be alienated: “I”, may be alienated to others. People may be alienated as tools. The formation of alienation is related to "elimination of self", and "elimination of self" may be passive or proactive. The passive elimination is due to social factors, such as monopoly of thinking, money worship, and degeneration of independent spirits. The proactive elimination is caused by personal confusion, such as being infatuated with certain trend, worshiping certain authority, or being addicted to a fantasy. "Elimination of self" in art is often related to the lack of in-depth understanding of the nature of art. As mentioned earlier, without artistic awareness, good works can become traps, causing the followers to become captives and lose the initiatives for art exploration and creation. At that time, the phenomenon of "elimination of self" will arise, and “I” will be alienated to others. My hand and my brain will be controlled by others. My brush and my ink will be limited by others. However, the masters of art have long warned: "Those who imitate me will not survive". There are "no two identical leaves" in the world, not to mention the most intelligent and emotional people. The famous writers Yu Pingbo and Zhu Ziqing visited Qinhuai River together, and then each wrote a prose essay titled "Qinhuai River in the Sound of Oars and the Shadow of the Lights".  The two prose essays have different styles, different conceptions, different aesthetic flavors, and both become famous works.  Why? People have different development environments, different education, different sensory responses, different thinking dimensions, not to mention the ever-changing magical inspirations and mood swings. Why abandoning the unique self, and act as a counterfeit of others? There is a saying that goes well: "The greatest disaster in life is to lose ourselves in the noise of the people".  The essence of art is creation, not manufacturing. How can art be created if the creator, as aesthetic subject, is absent? Art is most in need of personality, and assimilation should be avoided at all costs. If the aesthetic subject has become a producer of common and standard parts, art will inevitably cease to exist. In this sense, seeking non-being is looking for the "eliminated" self, the lost self, the alienated self, and is to retrieve the original self and the personality. It is the return of self.

對審美主體的自我認知及應具鮮明個性的重要性，西丁是這樣表述的：“很多人常常忘掉研究自己，對自己很不了解。不研究自己的長項要把路走錯；不研究自己的能量要把位置擺錯；不研究自己的病況要把藥吃錯；不研究自己的長相要把相畫錯。此所謂要有自知之明也。” ；“藝術不是技術，藝術最大的特征是個性，藝術的個性是不可能傳人的。這些大畫家的藝術個性都很鮮明，都是個人特有素質形成的精神現象。所謂‘個性’就是隻有一個，沒有第二個。有一無二，有其唯一性和不可複製性。”； “我覺得畫畫是個人的事情，不是群體性的事情，沒有必要結派。要是強拉在一起，反而出現弊端，它能磨滅個性特質，對藝術創新、百花齊放沒有好處。” ；“有人說：‘小個性是小藝術家，大個性是大藝術家，沒有個性不是藝術家’，此話不無道理，通觀古今中外，特別是那些大藝術家的作品，都有其鮮明的獨特的個性，為世人所折服。如果藝術創作缺少創造性，就很難擺脫一般化、概念化和平庸的束縛。” 這些美學觀點獨到而深刻，而以其統領自己的藝術實踐，無疑是成功的重要保證。

For the self-awareness of the aesthetic subject and the importance of having a distinctive personality, Xiding said: "Many people often forget themselves, forget to study themselves, and do not understand themselves. Not studying one’s strengths may lead to wrong paths. Not studying one’s own energy may lead to wrong positions.  Not studying one‘s own condition may lead to wrong medicines.  Not studying one’s own looks may lead to inaccurate pictures, thus so-called the wisdom of self-knowledge".  “Art is not technology, it is not transferable. The artistic personalities of those great master are very distinct, and are all the spiritual phenomena formed by the unique qualities of individuals. The so-called ‘personality’ implies uniqueness, and cannot be duplicated. Unique and non-duplicable".  “I always consider painting as a personal matter, not a group activity. There is no need to form factions.  On the contrary, there are usually drawbacks if pulling together forcefully. It can abolish the qualities of individuality and is not beneficial for artistic innovations and free development of different forms". “Some people say: 'the one with small personality is a small artist, the one with a big personality is a big artist, and the one with no personality is not an artist'. There is truth in it. All through history and in every nation, works of great artists all have outstanding and distinctive personality, filling viewers with admiration. Therefore, without creativity, it is difficult for the art creation to be free from the shackles of generalization, conceptualization and mediocrity". These aesthetics thoughts are unique and profound.  Xiding directs his own art practice based on them, and they are undoubtedly an important guarantee of success.

●趣妙味雋，審美追求的化境。

● Ingenious delight and wonderful taste are the realm of aesthetic pursuit.

西丁有一聯語：“人生如淡茶有點味道即可；作品像濃湯追求醇厚不棄。”又言：“突出味道。畫一幅畫，或做一道菜，要突出味道。味道突出就真成功。” 味，中國古典美學中最高的審美範疇，是內蘊於作品中“可會於心而難達以口”的意旨、情趣。對審美主體來說，創造的藝術品其味充實而雋永是藝術追求的高標準；對藝術欣賞者來說，體會感悟藝術作品中的味是高品位的藝術享受。南朝宋畫家宗炳提出的“澄懷味象”，就是審美主體要以虛靜澄明、無我無欲的情懷，去品味、領悟審美對象之中所深蘊的大美、靈趣、真諦，以達暢神。西丁的創作追求味之醇厚，故觀者感到“有看頭”，“有嚼頭”，“有味道”。藝術作品中的味又有韻味、神味、趣味等不同的區分，西丁作品中的趣味更為突出。

Xiding has a couplet: "Life is like light tea, sufficient with a little taste; artworks are like thick soup, never enough in pursuit of the flavor". And then: "Highlight the flavor. Painting a picture, or cooking a dish, both need to highlight the flavor.  Don’t be dull and flavorless. Outstanding flavor spells success". Taste, is the highest aesthetic category in Chinese classical aesthetics, is the essence and temperament contained in the work, which "can be understood by heart but hard to be expressed by words". For the aesthetic subject, creating artwork with rich and meaningful taste is a high standard of the pursuit of art. For art appreciators, the appreciation and understanding of taste in the artwork is the artistic enjoyment of high quality. What Zong Bing, a Southern Song Dynasty painter proposed, "Clearing the mind and tasting the imagery", means that the aesthetic subject should taste and comprehend the great beauty, spiritual interest and true meaning contained in the aesthetic object with unoccupied, calm, empty feeling of nothingness, in order to reach the unobstructed spiritual realm. The rich taste Xiding pursues in artistic creation has left the viewers feeling “worth viewing”, “full of taste”, and “full of aftertaste”. In the works of art, there are different distinctions between the tastes, such as charming taste, spiritual taste, and delightful taste. It is the delightful taste that is more prominent in the works of Xiding.

西丁一書法作品錄寫了郭沫若的兩句話：“異想天開；實事求是。”這兩句話實際是對創造性思維的高度概括，用於指導藝術創作，可激發創造的活力。造象，盡可思接千載、神馳八荒、跨科逾類、組合化合、以發揮最大的想象力；表意，力求準確，力求貼切，真實自然，合情合理，以求得意與象天衣無縫的吻合。對此，中國古典美學曾有過精妙的論述，如蘇軾的“詩以奇趣為宗，反常合道為趣。”其中“反常合道”四字揭示了“奇趣”產生的思維機製。反常，就是對在此一意義上常情常理的悖反，而出現異常，由於異常，人們就會感到奇怪；合道，就是在彼一意義上又合乎常情常理，人們又會感到並不奇怪。這就形成了一個“奇而不奇，怪而不怪”的對立統一體。若隻有反常、奇怪，人們就會感到荒誕不稽；若隻有合道，不奇怪，那是正常，也就無奇可言。隻有二者有機地構成一個整體，才會產生奇得有趣，怪得合理的藝術效應。反常而又合道，奇巧，奇趣、奇味均與之相關。相馬而無馬，文字幻化為崖壁，點人成石，神算被盜，等等，皆為“反常合道為趣”這一思維機製的產物。

One of Xiding’s calligraphy works quoted two phrases of Guo Moruo: "Have the most fantastic ideas, seek truth from facts". These two phrases are actually a high-level summary of creative thinking, which can be used to guide the creation of art and stimulate the vitality of creation. In modeling images, the mind should reach all the time and all the places, all the disciplines and all the categories, combining and integrating, to maximize the power of imagination. In expressing ideas, the efforts are made to be accurate and appropriate, real and natural, fair and reasonable, in order to achieve the perfect combination of ideal and imagery. In this regard, the Chinese classical aesthetics had exquisite expositions, such as Su Shi's "in poetry, ingenious delight is the principle, and the delight is in being unconventional, but confirming with the way". "Being unconventional and conforming to the way" reveals the thinking mechanism to create "ingenious delight". “Being unconventional” is being contrary to what is normal and common, and thus giving birth to anomalies, to which people will feel strange. “Conforming to the way” is to be normal and reasonable in another sense, and thus not surprising people. This forms a unity of opposites, "odd yet common, strange yet reasonable". If there is only the abnormal and strange, people will feel absurd; if only confirming unsurprisingly, then it is normal, sans ingenious delight. Only when the two opposites form an organic unity we can have an artistic effect of odd yet interesting, strange yet reasonable. Ingenuity, ingenious delight, ingenious taste are all related to "being unconventional and conforming to the way". Judging horses without a horse, transforming texts into cliffs, turning a figure into a stone, stealing from a master fortune teller, etc.,  are all outcomes of the thinking mechanism of "the delight is in being unconventional, but confirming with the way".

 

■“淡茶”與“濃湯”哲學

■ The Philosophy of “Light Tea” and “Thick Soup”

“人生如淡茶有點味道即可；作品像濃湯追求醇厚不棄。”這既是西丁的藝術哲學也是他的人生哲學。

"Life is like light tea, sufficient with a little taste; artworks are like thick soup, never enough in pursuit of the flavor" This is both Xiding’s philosophy of art and his philosophy of life.

西丁的作品常常呈現出一種寧靜之美、澄明之美。人如其畫，畫如其人。西丁為人處世，淡定而從容，如他的夫子自道：“人生如淡茶有點味道即可”。人活到了這種境界，超脫了世俗的羈絆，也是一種大智慧。如同楊絳先生所說的“我和誰都不爭，和誰爭我都不屑。簡樸的生活，高貴的靈魂是人生至高境界。”省美協主席、著名畫家石魯，看中了西丁，1979年曾在六尺宣紙上書寫《母賢子好，夫愛高風》八個大字贈予西丁。還對人言：“西丁，陳家墉（美協一位駐會畫家）是‘實幹家’。”後將西丁調入美協。省委宣傳部還以紅頭文件任命西丁為副主席兼秘書長。時移世遷，西丁因不屑於美協內部團團夥夥的牽絆，從秘書長位置上堅辭，憤然不幹。隻做駐會專職畫家，專事創作。明於取舍，知於進退，保持內心的寧靜，靈魂的澄明，不能不說是人生的一種高境界。

Xiding’s works often show a beauty of tranquility and clarity. Like person, like paintings. Xiding conducts himself in a calm and simple way, as in his own words: "Life is like light tea, sufficient with a little taste". It is a great wisdom for people to live in this realm and transcend secular fetters. As the eminent Yang Jiang said, "I fight with no one, and it is beneath my dignity to fight with anyone. The highest realm of life is simple living and noble soul". Shi Lu, the famous painter and the chairman of provincial artists association, valued Xiding, and calligraphed “virtuous mother and good son, love and noble characters” on a large scale Xuan paper and presented to Xiding in 1979. He also said to the people: "Xiding and Chen Jiaxuan (a resident painter of the artists association) are 'men in action'". Later, Shi Lu transferred Xiding to the artists association. Provincial propaganda department issued official document appointing Xiding as vice chairman and secretary general. Due to the change of time, Xiding disdained the infighting at the artists association, and firmly resigned from the post of secretary general. He only wanted to be a full-time resident painter at the association, specializing in artistic creation. Perceptive in accepting or rejecting, clear in advancing or retreating, maintaining peace of mind and the clarity of soul is certainly a high realm of life.

“健忘是一種病態；善忘是一種境界。”何以達致心之寧靜、澄明之境，西丁道出了自己的人生經驗。九方皋相馬，不辨牝牡，不識驪黃，但能判別出是否有千裏之能。知大局，識本質，不為表象、枝節所擾。該清楚處清楚，該糊塗處糊塗，不僅是相馬，人生不也如是？更何況人生不如意之事十之七八，事事都弄個清清楚楚，事事都永記不忘，滿腦瑣微，怎能心境寧靜、澄明？

"Amnesia is a sickness; knowing what to forget is a realm”, Xiding tells his own life experiences on how to achieve the realm of peaceful and clear mind. Jiufang Gao could not tell the sex nor the color of the horses, but could judge the running capacity of them.  Having the overall picture and knowing the nature, not to be distracted by appearances and minor matters. Being clear where it needs to be clear, and oblivious where it needs to be oblivious, is not only important for judging horses, but also for living.  It is needless to say that there are many unsatisfactory events in life.  How can one have a caim and clear mind if everything has to be clarified and all the trivial details have to be remembered?

西丁是位謙謙君子，虛心，誠懇，平易，隨和。雖無某些藝術家恃才傲物的佯狂，但卻有股“為伊消得人憔悴，衣帶漸寬終不悔”的執著。“看準了的路，要一意孤行，不要東一榔頭西一棒子。有獨到見解的人是固執的。”這又是他在為藝態度上的夫子自道。藝術思潮，忽兒東風，忽爾西風，無定見者常在眼花繚亂的趕潮中荒廢掉一生，但西丁卻如他所書鄭板橋的一首詩：“咬定青山不放鬆，立根原在破岩中。千磨萬擊還堅勁，任爾東西南北風。”

Xiding is a true gentleman, modest, sincere, amiable, and easy-going, and doesn’t have the arrogance of some artists who are inordinately proud of their abilities.  He does have the dedication of "my clothes grow more and more loose, yet regret I not. For you am I thus distressed in longing and pain". "Once you choose a path, proceed willfully.  Do not act in a hit-or-miss fashion. Those who have original ideas are stubborn". This attitude toward art is his words and his practice.  Art trends are like wind, blowing east now and blowing west the next moment. Those without conviction often wasted their lives in chasing the dazzling and changing tides. Xiding is like a Zheng Banqiao poem he once calligraphed: "Biting into the green mountain without loosening, between the broken rocks the root is running. Remaining determined despite of the thousand blows, regardless which way the wind is howling”.

對待人生，對待藝術，他有自己的哲學思考。如楊絳先生所說：“一個人不想攀高就不怕下跌，也不用傾軋排擠，可以保其天真，成其自然，潛心一誌完成自己能做的事。”藝術家西丁正是這樣的一個人。

He has his own philosophical thinking regarding life and art. As Yang Jiang said: "A person who does not want to go up is not afraid of falling down, nor has the needs to squeeze in and out, and can save the innocence and maintain the nature, and devote oneself to achieve what can be done". Such is Xiding the artist.

 

2016年10月9日擱筆於大興郡·瀚苑；

Draft completed on October 9, 2016 in Hanyuan, Daxingjun

2017年6月19日改定於滬上寓居

 Revised on June 19, 2017 at home in Shanghai