I
　　China’s grand historian Sima Qian said:“The world undergoes minor changes in 30 years, moderate changes in 100 years and big changes in 500 years.”
　　The changes in the east-west pattern may be regarded as big changes. The“Renaissance”movement 500 years ago opened up a new era of respecting  freedom and dignity of man and encouraging independent and aggressive spirit in the west, thus preparing ideologically and culturally for the“industrial revolution”that followed. But in the corresponding period in the east, the more than 2,000-year-old autocratic empire of the Ming Dynasty in the middle and late periods began its irreversible decline. The inhumane secret agents of “Dongchang” and “Jin Yi Wei” were running roughshod, almost choking the ancient culture of the Chinese nation to death.
　　The changes in the east may be regarded as moderate changes. The“Tong Meng Hui” (the United League) that started more than 100 years earlier was launching its final  attack on the autocratic empire. The success of the “1911 revolution” led by Dr. Sun Yat-Sen marked the end of the empire. Then came the“May 4”movement, subjecting the traditional culture to relentless castigation, thus leading to a trend of “blindly rejecting what is Chinese and taking over what is western”.
　　The changes that have taken place during the reform and opening up over the past 30 years may be regarded as minor changes. The most profound and extensive of such changes are, no doubt, the changes in the ideas and concepts of people. In cultural and arts, the most prominent change is nothing more than the loss of bearing due to the impact of the Western culture and arts, followed by the confusion and exhaustion in the pursuit for innovation, which then gave way to   the strong desire to return to tradition.
　　The Author’s preface to Tai Shi Gong in the Record of the Grand Historian says:“I heard from my father that“Fu Xi” (ancestor of the Chinese nation) was simple and honest. He authored‘Zhou Yi” (I-Ching or the Book of Change) in which he created the Eight Diagram. The prosperous scene of Tangyao (a sage king) and Yushun (capable and virtuous minister) period was recorded in‘Shang Shu” (the Book of Shang or the Book of History). Li and Yue were created in that period.” When the 500-year history and culture has testified to the correctness of the prediction by Sima Qian more than 2,000 years ago, people would, apart being aghast at the predictions, have to hold historical legacy in great esteem and become gradually aware that the predictions come from Fu Xi’s idea of Yi Gua (Changeable Divination), the accurate knowledge about the law of Nature instead of subjective fabrication. With this clear in mind, there would be no problem about how to return to tradition. It is based on the small changes that have taken place over the past three decades. How to weigh the losses and gains in the changes of art and literature over the past 500 years, how to come out from the narrow and outdated ideas in history education and how to renew the core idea of Dao or the Way of Change – these are the practical issues the contemporary Chinese artists and literati have to face up to. There is no way of avoiding it. Otherwise, what is the traditional Chinese culture would still remain as illusionary as the castle in the air and there would be nowhere to find the path back to tradition. It is exactly at this moment that Xu Zhongou has put his artistic works of the past 30 years on display. His innovative idea in printmaking serves perhaps as a good paradigm for discussing the transition of Chinese arts and return to tradition. 
　　Xu Zhongou has experienced three major steps of changes in his artistic creations, which happen to coincide with the changes in the three stages of China’s reform and opening up. The first stage covers 1978-1988; the second stage covers 1989-1999; and the third stage covers 2000-2009. Xu Zhongou was enrolled by the Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts in 1978, when the reform and opening up just began and the people were just awakened from the nightmare of the“Great Cultural Revolution”. The art and literature would inevitably reflect the“scars”left from that period. Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts was no exception. It, too, produced a number of quite influential oil paintings. Xu Zhongou, however, realized, out of his own difficult path of growth, that it is the farming society in which food is the primary want of the people that constitutes the basis for the survival and proliferation of humankind and the formation of their culture. So, he created his graduation works “Land – where life never ends”, expressing his profound love for land and the farming culture. He went on to create the“land”series and the ten-meter-long scroll“Town of Qinglong”. Farming culture constitutes the main thread of his creations in the first stage. His simple and honest awareness brought him back to the foundation of the 5000-year-old civilization. He kept a firm grip of the core of traditional Chinese culture. But, for this, he was shut out of the mainstream.
　　In the second stage, he created the“Mortise and Tenon”series and the“Walnut”series, which have become the representative works in his printmaking creations. Western artists from the“Renaissance”to the present find it hard to understand the unity between Yi (idea) and Xiang (image) due to the limitations of their short history. They have tried and explored, resulting in all kinds of styles and schools. But they failed to get clear about Yi (idea) and had to turn to seek vividness of Xiang (image). That is why many fashionable schools have plunged themselves into an impasse, unable to fare along, vanishing like a flash in the pen. Nowadays, many people of insight have turned to the ancient Chinese ideas and traditional culture and arts to seek out the essence of “Yi (idea) and Xiang (image)”.
　　The same is true with traditional Chinese art. It, too, faces the impasse in innovation and development. Since the“May 4”movement, artificial separation of one part of history from its continuum and the pernicious influence of the denial of traditional Chinese culture have created insurmountable barriers to knowing the core ideas of the 5000-year-traditional culture and made it difficult to carry over and develop the traditional arts. But the fever of“rejecting what is Chinese and taking over what is western” has lasted till today, without any sign of rebating. No matter whether the teachers and students of schools of art go abroad or not, the trend of despising the traditional arts has become an indisputable fact. The tendency in arts education characterized by“stressing what is western to the neglect of things Chinese”is the very reason of the unwillingness and inability to lead people back to traditions to seek the aesthetic subtlety of“image and idea”of the traditional art. That is why the young students, once facing the blurry history of western paintings, are at a loss, without knowing how to carry over the traditions and how to make innovations.
　　Some self-professed“contemporary artists”, who sedulously stand opposed to the traditional Chinese arts and wallow in their own shallow concepts, have fallen into the mire of the off-mainstream western arts and felt very complacent over the corrupting influence. They have beautified the straightforward personal feelings expressed by western artists as“creation”. They pass off the strength of image as irrelevant to artistic expression and construe the willful superficiality as the creative model. This has given rise to a strange cycle. The “contemporary Chinese artists”are following western artists in their heels to the ignorance of traditional Chinese art while western artists have turned to the traditional Chinese art. The cause for the strange cycle is the result of the major changes in the east-west pattern in the area of arts for the last 500 years. Yet, many young students still remain in the dark, without knowing that the artistic creation on the basis of the traditional culture is the contemporary art. This is a historical definition instead of the idea monopolized by the west.
　　It is fortunate enough that Xu Zhongou has kept himself out of the mainstream. Sticking to the traditional culture, he is convinced that the ancient culture is sure to offer creative opportunities. He then draws inspirations from the ancient poems and learns how to conceive, with emphasis put on the artistic image and apply them in his printmaking. His“Mortise and Tenon”series are based on the idea of harmony between yin and yang; his“Walnut”series draw on the idea that the land carries and nurtures all things and makes the world last. The plausible artistic images, the charm of the popular culture, the ideas that invokes endless wild and fanciful thought and the pleasant sense of beauty could arouse endless exclamation. His creative idea based on the Way of Change that presents contrasting traditional culture and the contemporary styles in art have led to his innovations.
　　Xu’s major breakthrough in the traditional printmaking in terms of contents and form is reflected in his third stage creation featuring such large works as“In the Name of Writing”, “In the Name of Water and Ink”and“In the Name of Landscape”. He owes the turning point in his creation to his earnest study of all schools of thought in the past and the traditional cultural ideas and his deep understanding of the truth about the change of Nature, which, in turn, has given him more profound inspiration of the historical connotation of “image”, thus putting him on a higher plain. Taking his works as a whole, the grandiose huge pictures, the sweeping momentum are the breakthrough from the narrow patterns of traditional printmaking. The noble spirit, the randomly revealed form, the free-wheeling state and the floating momentum represent the subject matters for calligraphy and landscape paintings. The placement of the sublimation from the traditional abstract concepts in the grand conception creates a shocking and thought-provoking effect. The creative thinking benefited from the mastery of the Way of Change is no doubt playing a demonstrative role in the aesthetic creation on the traditional subject matters.
　　Put it bluntly, the fervent commercial tide and impulsive fashionable arts have distorted the artistic creations of China, keeping the artists far away from  tradition and depriving them of their self-confidence and self-respect. The“Renaissance”gave rise to arrogance, inflated pursuit for material satisfaction and plunder of natural resources in the west although it also brought about freedom and liberty. All these have harmed again the core ethical values of the traditional Chinese culture and the ecological idea of“harmony between man and nature”characteristic of the farming civilization. The idea that“Good fortune leans on bad fortune and bad fortune could rest on good fortune”is something left for people today to deliberate seriously and also a test for human artistic creation. Here, I have sensed the relationship between good fortune and bad fortune in Xu’s works in the third stage. From“Writing”, he thinks of the harm done to the form of Chinese characters and from the “water and ink”, he feels the deterioration of ethical standards; from the“landscapes”, he feels the danger of mountains and hills. Perhaps the author is not aware of the balance between good fortune and bad fortune, he has given the understanding of another type of arts, which presents ethical ideas in the artistic perception. It well serves as a reminder to the people.
　　Wen Zi said:“If one sticks to the way of the world, what is close to it is the form but not in spirit. So it would inevitably different from others. What makes me stick to the worldly is not myself but what is outside me”. By“not myself but what is outside me”, it means the ethics of the traditional culture; it is the artistic mission of sticking to the way of the world without giving up my ambition. Over the past 30 years, Xu Zhongou has been making endless explorations and working his heart out in the artistic pursuit for what is popular, paving the way to his firm “Chinese stand” for the transition of the traditional to contemporary printmaking. He is truly an asceticist sticking to the traditional Chinese culture and the originality of contemporary arts.
II
　　During my 30 years of teaching, I used to dream of eking out a living by selling paintings. But I found that I had always been led by the nose by people with money. I felt increasingly resentful. Art in its origin had nothing to do with economics, but it cannot escape the measure by this yardstick. This is the case in many other things. As the whole world makes it a standard in gauging things, I have no alternative but choose to stay out.
　　Xu Zhongou has candidly revealed his inner conflicts and distress, perhaps like many other artists. But the idea that“art in its origin had nothing to do with economics”may not be accepted by most people. After all, we have been influenced by such ideas for more than 30 years: Take wealth as the standard for success and use money to price arts. People who used to the inertia thinking regard this as a matter of course. It could hardly be imagined that when money has eroded right down to the bottom line of ethics, artistic creation would become lamentable, revealing the weakening of self-control power.
　　This reminds me of a story about a Song painter, who sold paintings for a living. When the Southern Song moved its capital to Hangzhou, painter Li Tang moved there with it, too, where he lived on selling paintings. But it turned out that his landscape and figurine paintings, though excellent enough, were not well accepted. So he composed a poem to satirize the situation, saying that if he had known that the landscape paintings were not the like of people, he would have painted peony. Later on, a local government official recognized the excellence of his paintings, he was summoned to the Central Academy of Arts. The then Emperor Gao Zong asked him to insert a painting in the empty space of a poem. As the emperor respected him, the people in Hangzhou did the same. There is no right or wrong with regard to the buying of landscape paintings or peonies. But the changes in the convergence among the common people showed that it was the ability of self-control culturally and the social education of the buyers instead of money that influenced the result.
　　Lao Zi once said:“One’s voice reveals one’s style; one’s style reveals one’s habit; and one’s habit reveals one’s level of culture.” The style and habit are cultivated and acquired from education, which is the basic function of school. Similar to the case of Hangzhou people buying peony is the trade in the porcelain of the Song and Yuan dynasties and in the calligraphic and painting works of the Ming and Qing dynasties. China’s culture and arts have a history of more than 5,000 years and there are more things than cultural relics to be favored. The popular economic pursuit itself is driven by money rather than by culture and arts. This is the result of history education, which has lured people into the“trap”of forgetting about the ancestors. When people are appealing to the return of traditional culture, they have plunged into a misty world, in urgent need of clear answers from historians to the core contents of traditional culture. But over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, the area of history studies has remained a“pool of backwater”. The out-dated ideas and the history teaching materials compiled in line with the fixed mode of thinking have not only pulled to pieces the vivid history of 5,000 years but also cut off the head of history. The most satirical is the timeline of Chinese history showing“5,000-year civilization but 3,000-year history”, thus lending an alibi to western scholars for negating the 5,000-year civilization. To this, Chinese historians have no way of refuting it. That is why, up to the present, the Chinese people do not know what is“China”and what is“Huaxia”and who is“Yan Huang” (Yellow Emperor). If the historians are really capable of providing the answers and repelling the suspicions, is it necessary to wait till today? The 5000-year civilization is there, pure and simple; its huge impact on the progress of human history would never be obliterated and the time-honored traditional culture would never die. Here, I would like to declare: the core of traditional Chinese culture is Dao or the Way. The main part of traditional Chinese culture is farming.
　　According to the Way of Change:“The way of heaven is Yin and Yang; the way of earth is chalice and blade; and the way of being a person is benevolence and uprightness.”Yin and Yang mean the sun and the moon; chalice and blade refer to all things in the world; benevolence and uprightness refer to love and honesty. The theory concerns the laws governing the movement of the sun and the moon, the proliferation of all things in the world and the existence and propagation of humans and love and fairness in the communities. That is why Confucius said: “Looking up the phenomena on heaven and inspecting the order of humans on earth, Fu Xi created the eight-diagram to explain the changes of all things and the order on earth. This confirmed that Fu Xi created the Eight-Diagram for the purpose of bringing harmony to man and nature and standardizing the social behavior. The book,“Guoyu – Zhouyu” (Discourses of States -- Discourse on the State of Zhou) says:“The vertical line (Eight-Diagram) represents the heaven; the horizontal line represents the earth. When the vertical and horizontal lines are well matched, it is an image that gains civilization. The image representing civilization is the natural phenomenon of the sun and the moon. “The vertical line, which represents the heaven and the horizontal line, which represents the earth, put together is called“wen” (civilized) and the sun and the moon shine all things bright means“ming” (bright). That is the original meaning of“wen ming” (civilization). The movement of yang represents the heaven and the movement of yin represents the earth. The sun and the moon cause the changes of four seasons, which are vital to the farming culture. This is the origin of the Chinese civilization. So is the traditional culture. The birth of civilization therefore has nothing to do with economy and yet, the farming economy relies on it for development.
　　Guan Zhong said:“Emptiness and void means the way; the cultivation of all things on earth means virtue.”The universe is shapeless but the movement of the sun and the moon is governed by the objective law, that is, the“Way”. The movement of the sun and the moon determines the growth and movement of all things on earth that provide humans with food. This is the original meaning of“virtue”. Fu Xi founded the “way”according to the law governing the movement of the sun and the moon and established the “Survival of the Fittest”way of life that is the law of nature. So the core of Dao (the Way) is virtue. Confucius said:“People who know the Way know virtue; those who know virtue observe the way.”So, for more than 5,000 years, the Chinese people have strictly observed the law of nature in their farm production and use it as the standard for judging the virtues of emperors of all dynasties. The people observing the way have virtue and the people know virtue observe the way – this has formed the ideological system of China’s farming society and the corner stone of the traditional culture. That is why Lao Zi said: “Those who have virtue support each other, love each other and respect each other”. This concept remained unchanged at any time and in any dynasty. By following this idea, the Chinese nation created the brilliant farming civilization and culture with its unremitting hard efforts and wisdom. The 5,000-year civilization has eloquently proved that people who have virtue are the motive force of social development. So, Zhuang Zi said:“Heaven and earth are great since time immortal. It was praised by Huang Di, Yao and Shun. So what the ancient rulers did? They followed the example of the heaven and the earth.”So up till today, paying homage to the heaven, the earth, the emperor, the relatives and the teachers is of utmost importance. It is the spiritual belief of Chinese in the world. This is the core of virtue.
　　Xu Zhongou is rooted in the farming culture from the very start. With or without intention, he has penetrated the ethical concepts of the traditional culture throughout his works. So his“country series”, while eulogizing the farming culture of China and the traditional virtues, represent a disguised criticism of the“evolution theory →progress theory →revolution theory→violence theory→dictatorship theory”. They are not limited to the sense of“scars”. The ten-meter scroll“Town of Qinglong”is his representative work. Drawing on the cultural elements of farming society and harmonious life, it gives a panorama view of the fresh natural scenes, country flavor, busy and orderly crop cultivation and vivid customs and conventions, a typical epitome of the culture and customs of the traditional farming society. In retrospect, when we review it cool-mindedly, it is not difficult to find that the picture has become a register in his carrying over the traditional culture and thinking. Neither is it difficult to find the big differences between Xu Zhongou and young artists in ideology and arts attainment during the small changes over the past 30 years.
　　Drawing on Du Fu’s poem“when the spring water is in the mountains, it is clear; when the water comes out of the mountains, it becomes turbid,”, Lin Zhen, a poet of the Song Dynasty composed a poem entitled:“Cold Spring”. It goes:“The spring water is so pleasant to the heart; the warmth and cold is only known to itself; it flows into the West Lake, singing and dancing; turning back, it is no longer as pleasant as it is in the mountains.”There is difference between water inside the mountain and outside it, though it comes from the same source. There are not so many people sticking to their artistic missions; but there are many who hanker after money and fame. Those who have edged into the ranks of pursuing what is fashionable and acting as pushers, in particular, are no less“turbid”than“the water singing and dancing into the West Lake”and“the drawing of peony”. Sun Qiao, a noted prose writer of the Tang Dynasty said:“It is the same with writing. Those who pursue purity and honesty would be much restrained; those who gain depth are bound to suffer.”There were no less people who were restrained. This was what we call corruption in the academic field today. Those who gain depth in their writing would get themselves into trouble, thus throwing themselves into a constant state of anxiety. These are the backbones of the Chinese culture. When Confucius was stranded, he simplified and expounded the Liu Jing (six scriptures); when Sima Qian met misfortune, his Record of Grand Historian lives on. Yang Ziyun suffered for writing“Tai Xuan”by imitating the Way of Change; Chen Zi’ang was disgraced for writing“Gan Yu”. Du Fu, Li Bai and Wang Jingning were all on the verge of being disgraced. Only because they had sustained sufferings that the traditional Chinese culture has lasted. That is why the famous poet Du Fu said in castigating people who jeered at the writings of Wang Bo, Yang Jiong, Lu Zhaolin and Luo Binwang that“Even you die together with your name, you cannot obstruct the spread of their fame that is like the endless raging flows of rivers.”This is a historical assessment about clean and honest, wealthiest, depth and sufferings. It is very fortunate. All the men of virtue are selfless in exercising the Dao. Though Tao Qian (Poet Tao Yuanming) suffered, the bottom line of the traditional virtues did not give way. Although Du Fu was penniless and frustrated, the epic of traditional culture has passed on from generation to generation. Historical appraisal is not based on money and power. The truth is relentless and there is all the reason behind. This is something the present-day impetuous and confusing literati and artists must guard against.
III
　　In his lecture at the Mariland School of Arts in 1994, Xu Zhongou said:“China may lag behind the West in science and technology, but not in arts. What the Chinese people eat and drink and their way of converse as well as their customs and conventions are all closely associated with arts. The real arts are in China. An artistic nation is not out to plunder. They engage in self entertainment.”His real insight of the attributes of arts shocked the American audience who are used to use money to measure arts. For this, he was honored as a“life-long honorary citizen”by the mayor. The small“Mortise and Tendon”book marks he brought with him went around like hot cakes. I have kept a few till today.
　　“Real arts are in China”. This is perhaps the direct perception of arts by Xu Zhongou. But historical facts have proved only too true. For a century, people have regarded traditional Chinese paintings as representative of Chinese arts, without knowing what the Chinese arts were before the invention of brush and paper. During the minor changes for every 30 years, the trend of“blindly rejecting what is Chinese and taking over what is western”has become a matter of course. Many young students after the“isms”of the West like a flock of ducks, mistakenly thinking what they do are real arts. Chinese artists, both Chinese and western schools, though not very clear about the historical definition and concept of“art”, are alarmed, suspicious or sneering at what Xu Zhongou said. The tragedy of forgetting about the ancestors is attributable to the faults in history education. If you do not believe, we may ask: Did ideology and culture exist in the remote antiquity before the turtle shell writing appeared? What was the carrier? Did arts exist? What were their forms? It may be assured that the history books either avoid mentioning it or do not go into details. It were high time to clarify matters, get to the bottom of things and restore the true history of Chinese arts.
　　The Book of Change said: “Speakers appeal for aspirations of the people in sincere language; people use specially-made wares to express their respect, observe the movement of sundial to adjust changes; fortune tellers tell the auspicious or evil signs by using hexagrams. Measures are adopted to better time farming.”This is the four-point rules established for the hexagram by mastering the rules of changes in nature, laying the foundation for humankind to develop from ignorance to civilization and for land tillers to time their extensive farming.
　　In ancient times, the sacrificing activities were usually held not in temples but out in the fields, so it is called“field sacrificial ceremonies”. The ancestors worshipped the special astronomical phenomena such as sun and moon eclipses and the alignment of the north pole stars. This is the expression of awe-inspiring natural phenomena. Then, they used sundial and the Eight-diagram to tell the changes of the weather so as to know what the harvest would be. China’s 5000-year farming owes its development to the guidance by the truth laid out in the Book of Change. That is why Confucius said:“When natural phenomena occur, the sages then make the predictions and hold sacrificing ceremony in order to make the heavenly ways known.”The sacrificial ceremonies out in the field concerns the matter of life and death for the extensive land tillers who relied on Nature for food. Guided by the idea that the truths, big or small, must conform to the actual conditions”, it would inevitably become the common will of the society in which such rules of thought must be observed. The social activities guided by the idea of change is, no doubt, the most fundamental state of ideology and culture in the remote antiquity before the turtle shell writing was created. Among them,“idea” and “image” are the most important cultural carriers in exchange and expressing feelings. That is why Confucius said: “San Huang lays down the rules and people do not violate them; Wu Di draws images to set the world in order.”By“religion”, it means worshipping the ideas of change. Western scholars deem that there is no religion in China in that they do not understand the contents of the most ancient principle of change while the tragedy of the philosophical world in China lies in the negation of Fu Xi creating the principle of change.
　　The carrier of“idea”has been preserved till today. Many minorities in China have only“oral speeches”but not“written languages”. The history passed on orally and the record, completely or simply, by written language have become the core of the “myths” of the remote antiquity still preserved. To mis-read with the present-day concept or in the name of legendary stories to negate the facts all means going easy in history studies.
　　There are more carriers for“image”. It is sourced from the stability of meaning expression and the frequent use and spread. The rock carving, daily utensils are all historical relics either buried underground or scattered among the people. But the relics carrying the concept of change before the turtle shell writing are the weak link in both archaeology and the field of arts. That may be the reason why it is difficult for Chinese artists to look back on the traditional culture.
　　What is image? Confucius said:“Sages are able to identify all traces under heaven. Then it created the diagram to simile the objects, which are called images.”Image can be divided into two types: painted image; images for making utensils. By all traces under heaven, it means all the objects in the world. By image, it means the result of all utensils. Assimilation is the principled requirements, including the accurate recognition of objects and the thought expressed in the image. That is the interpretation of arts by Confucius.
　　What is Yi Shu (art)? Art is skill, according to what“Yu Gong”said. Skill refers to the technique used in crop farming. During the Spring and Autumn period, there were six skills: rites, music, shooting, riding, handwriting and mathematics. People who are greedy and incapable are regarded as useless.
　　The book“Rites: School”says:“There is Xu in Shu and school in the state”. Here Xu means the name of ancient schools. It means there are schools in different administrative regions. At the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, there were five titles of nobility: Gong, Hou, Bo, Zi and Nan. Schools were set up within a radiu of 100 li, 70 li and 50 li, called“Guo Xue” (State school). Within a state, there were a number of shu’s and the schools of Shu were called Xu, like the present-day township schools. Such schools taught the same things as Guo Xue. They included the six readings, six skills and the learning of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. The six readings were Poetry, writing, rites, music, the book of Spring and Autumn and the Book of Change, stressing the cultivation of the capabilities of governing the country. The six skills stressed application. All people, official and common people alike, all had to learn the same thing. Lao Zi and Confucius were no exception. The term“Guo Xue” (National Learning) now in hot discussion has confused the contents of this historical concept and mistaken the contents of learning. This has led to endless disputes. The Chinese lexicology mentioned“shu”, which refers to the crossing of a road. Fortune telling has its measures and township and state have their boundaries. Road is measured by a rail scale. So“Shu”is a rule of measure. That is the original meaning of Yi Shu (Art), which refers to the rule of skills. The earliest rules of skills is called“Yi Shu”. Xiang (image) is art. The real art is not only in China but also the sources of all human arts. The Chinese arts are no doubt the most important carriers of the ideology and culture of the remote antiquity. The pity is that Chinese history books have cut up the Chinese history of 5000 years of civilization, mistakenly terming the primitive society and stone age era, turning the civilization of the remote antiquity to nothing, thus depriving the Chinese arts of its source. Then there is the absurdity, calling Lao Zi the ancestor of Taoism and Confucius the creator of Confucianism. These fallacies in fact deny the history of Fuxi creating the idea of Dao (the way). It is tantamount to saying that the two sages had no roots. This is a big drawback of impulsive pursuit for what is easy or shallow.
IV
　　According to Chinese Taoist Guan Yin Zi, the feeling got from the observation of objective things is not a thing in heart, but the passion aroused by the property of the things observed. If such feelings stay long in the heart, it would develop into idea. So the feeling come from observation and idea comes from the cognition of things. By then, the object is no longer the object from where the feeling comes. It has been sublimed to a rational level. This is the reflection of the third instinct of man. Apart from the instinct for surviving and proliferating, humans have their unique subjective views on the objective world. That is the fundamental difference between man and animal. The idea of Dao was derived by Fu Xi from the observation of the movement of the sun, the moon and the changes of all things on earth. It reflects the idea of the fittest surviving. Image is inevitably the product of consciousness of humans. There are no historical relics without ideas behind. The same is true with such ideas as“poems voicing the aspirations”,“writing carrying Dao”,“emotions expressed through objects”and“perception done through forms”. The 5000 years of civilization have carried over and develop such Dao.
　　The image of utensils follows the principle of Confucius in artistic creation, stressing similarity in both form and spirit. In form, it means carving and imitating skills and in spirit, it means feelings. This is the artistic image, but not the duplication of physical image. It is form that carries feelings. That is why it is called imagery, which demonstrates the imaginable artistic charm that startles the world. All things in the world, the sun, the moon, the stars, the wind, rain, lightening, thunders, mountains and rivers, grass and woods, worms, bird, fish and snakes, carry the feeling of observation and contain perceptual forms. So the wind, flowers, snow and night are all climatic signs. Mountains, rivers and figures contain the mean of rising and decline. The aesthetical image of the Chinese arts is never expressed by superficial phenomena. History develops. Time changes. But the rules of forming images remain.
　　The so-called“creation”today is the fallacy that mistakenly interprets  Chinese artistic images. Dao commands all artistic works and it has remained unchanged through generations. What has changes is the Yi ( thought) about the physical objects. This Yi (thought) is different from the Yi that means“creation”.“Creation”mixed the changeable and unchangeable, mistaking the shallow and straightforward physical images as“imagery”. That is why the“contemporary art”is deprived of its root on which to develop. The term“creation”has been used indiscriminately everywhere, without any substance of the traditional ideas. They have hardly realized that innovating on the basis of carrying over the imagery conception of Chinese art must follow the rules and know the Dao.
　　This being understood, it would be understandable why Western artists find it hard to know imagery conception of traditional arts of China. It is because that their histories are short and knowledge is limited. Since the“Renascence”, Western art have been mostly bogged down in seeking the precision and vividness of images, without giving much thought to them. So, once they come into contact with Chinese landscape paintings and calligraphy, they feel confused.  Over the past century, the Chinese archaeology studies modeled  on that in the West also find it hard to know historical relics, just like the western artists. They have mistakenly read the objects, mis-interpreted history, thus throwing themselves into a very awkward position. They would become helpless when no written records are available on the objects in the Hongshan Culture, Qijia Culture, Liangzhu Culture and Sanxingdui Culture.
　　Confucius said:“Image conveys thoughts and there is no need of translation.”Translation varies from person to person and there are differences between the target and source languages. But it is perfect to convey meaning by images. This is the easiest way. Symbols and Images are the way of exchanges in idea and culture in the remote antiquity and they have lasted till today. In the Book of Change, it says: Nothing is so exhaustive to convey ideas than images, Ideas come from images. So ideas may be used to observe images and when images are understood, ideas would be gone. Image conveys ideas. When ideas are understood, images would be gone. That is why it does not need translation. To convey ideas through images transcends time and space and removes linguistic obstructions in that it is based on the convergence of the feelings and consciousness of humans and the sharing of the same source in culture, habits and education in history. Otherwise, the ideas must be translated. The migration of people has erased many unknown cultural traces and gradually it has resulted in expanded differences. That is why when people are talking about differences between the eastern and western art, they, often than not, ignore the homology of their histories and cultures. When images are understood, the ideas would be gone, hence no need of translation. This still can be found in the artistic works exhibited today. This is what has been left over from the 5000-year history. So, carrying forward the core ideas of the traditional Chinese culture is the historical mission endowed upon the shoulders of Chinese artists. The publicity and promotion of Xu Zhongou’s innovative works in the contemporary transitional period is an unshirkable duty of the Central Academy of Arts.
　　Among the exhibits, there are also many other works of Xu Zhongou, which tell his profound artistic attainment. I once saw the portrait of US President Bush done by Xu and realized his extraordinary skills. But what is the most innovative is the general breakthrough in the subject matter and forms of the works in his third stage.“In the Name of Writing”breaks away from the traditional meaning of Chinese characters and makes them like the images of things, thus giving a sense of retuning to tradition. His“In the Name of Water and Ink”, he breaks away from the traditional rules and wields the brush with such momentum that the characters reveal their beauty and elegance. The“In the Name of Landscape”, he carries over the imagery perception of Lao Zi and conveys the ways of survival and safety by presenting the momentum of steeples and the rolling waves of water. Landscapes cultivate and feed all things in the world. But what Xu depicts are not the physical mountains and waters. They are mountains and waters derived from his imagery thinking. It is the command of the secrets of Dao instead of pleasing with mountains and rivers.
　　It is an innovation on the basis of tradition. When ideas are understood, images would be gone. This is the soul of artistic creation.
　　I have harbored a particular favor with water. Lao Zi said:“A good person is like water. Water benefits all things and does not compete with them. It dwells in the lowly places that all disdain, thereby coming close to Dao.”Water comes first of the five elements, representing the source of all things. Dao is the root of heaven and earth and fundamentals of all things. Water stays in places that all disdain, but it is people who should be disdained. Water benefits all things but not complete with them but people do. People stop rivers to benefit their own crops but it is evil to release pollutants, thus destructing the ecology on which all things depend for development. To see images to know the idea is a reminder of sticking to Dao and holding dear water. Works about water are few and far between both in the past and at present. But still fewer are such grand scenes. This has inspired me to write the following lyrics:
　　The flood on the marshland does not assume any form;
　　It flows with the momentum like an arrow shooting out from the bow string; ‘
　　It is natural for it to flow, vertically and horizontally in all directions.
　　Spring water flows out to form a pond, clear and calm;
　　Drops of water splash when pounding at the rocks,
　　Only to form slender streams when coming ashore,
　　With waves spreading far and wide.
　　The moon is reflected in the pond;
　　The shifting sand covers up the trace line.
　　Though the traces of the past are nowhere to be found,
　　The conception still remains fresh in mind.
　　How empty and void the magic things are,
　　Yet they can fire the colorful imagination.
　　It is vast and dim at the start;
　　But in the end it serves as a mirror of the past.
　　Liu Shangyhong?Western Sichuan
　　At Kuzhulin, at the beginning of winter, 2008
　　Modification made in the summer of 2009