In my eyes, Mu Jiashan is an extraordinary figure, one not content with past achievements or second fiddle, strictly adhering to principles under an amiable demeanor. Born, educated and established in Jiangsu Province, China, he gives me an added sense of affinity—I can count myself as half a Jiangsu native as my mother is from Benniu, Wujin, Jiangsu.

　　Several years ago, both of us moved to Maryland, United States which belongs to the Greater Washington D.C. Area. In other words, it is part of Washington D.C., the U.S. capital. Geographically, we were located in a place akin to West Hill in Beijing. As we could literally rub shoulders with each other, we naturally spoke on familiar terms soon. What’s more, we share the same hometown and profession, in a broad sense. Back then, I couldn’t very well leave for China due to my work schedule. He happened to be visiting Beijing and was able to call on my father Zhang Ding. So he got a ‘permission slip’ from me.

　　Why did I say Mu is an extraordinary figure? In everything he does, he has an idea, a plan, a purpose accompanied by action. He doesn’t forget anything, big or small. Dad lived in the mountains at Mentougou then. It was difficult to visit him, even more difficult to talk with him in depth. But with Jiashan’s courage, carefulness and wisdom, he was able to turn the old man into smiles, high spirit and special preference for him in no time. Dad even gave him a big scroll of calligraphy. That was nothing out of the extraordinary, but what was rare was that Dad had an extensive conversation with him to their heart’s content.

　　Upon his return, Jiashan told me that he had benefited a great deal from his Beijing trip. I didn’t pay much attention to it, thinking as I did that a young painter would manage to learn something, more or less, from visiting a veteran. As for “benefiting a great deal”, that’s a nicety on everyone’s lips.

　　When I saw Jiashan’s new creations this year, I was struck by surprise. Oh, my God! How he had deftly integrated Dad’s dry ink with Mr. Fu Baoshi’s brushwork into what he named the “thousand-hair brush technique”! With a breath-taking revolution, he has opened out a new path!

　　An accomplished painter generally refrains from changing his/her style, for should he/she fail in developing a new style, “a tiger would turn out to be something more like a cat.” He/she either would have come to the end of his/her tethers, not would be turning circles on the same spot, as is commonly described as seeing a ghost and thus unable to move one’s frigid legs out of a circle. That’s why most people will, after finding a style suited to them, stay in their backyard garden within the bounds of security and propriety, assured of a decent harvest come what may. They will not toy with any new trick. Some of the famous contemporary masters that I am acquainted with have the same brush skills today as in their apprenticeship days. This is only naturally as constant practice into perfection and solid groundwork for assured success are simply beyond reproach.

　　These new works of Jiashan’s have caused repercussions in the fine art community; whether a tsunami will ensue remain unclear. It all looks pretty easy: it’s simply a sheet of window pane paper; all it takes is for someone to poke a hole in it. Those in the trade know only too well that this sudden awakening is not within everyone’s reach, though.

　　Dry ink painting is a steep peak or a treacherous path. No more than three or five men have succeeded in ascending it since ancient time, people like Cheng Sui, Wang Binhong and Zhang Ding, after traversing a long, challenging, winding course, with many skeletons strewn at the foot of the mountain. Although a host of determined youths also followed in the mountaineering exploration, there are only three tools available after all: a sheet of paper, an inkstick, and a brush. Let alone creating something new. Even copying our ancestors’ old styles may take a lifetime of practice without managing 40-50% similarity in shape and, for that matter, 20-30% in spirit.

　　Though Jiashan is scaling the same mountain, he is not tracing his predecessors’ footsteps. His novel approach embraces both the think and heavy multi-layered portrayal that is typical of western painting and the profound meaning that is found in traditional Chinese painting. Zhang Ding shook heaven and earth with his big crags in pitch-black ink. In Jiashan’s paintings, the black rocks have been morphed into three-dimensional scenery with fine flexible western techniques; age-old mountains should have been turned into live objects. Fu Baoshi’s small brush submerged shanshui (landscape) in a veil of haziness—a refreshing trick at the time. In Jiashan’s hand, the brush became a huge one with a thousand upstanding hairs that sweep across in an almighty manner.

　　Admittedly, no breakthrough will start with perfection, but now that Mu is soaring in the sky, how high and how far he will fly depend on his lucky star.

　　No one, not even Zhang Ding as creator of the Jian (sword) School or Fu Baoshi as founder of the Qi (air) School ever expected that the two schools they commanded and defended respectively should have been amalgamated into a new creation by a youngster through strong-headed wild hits in all directions. One wonders how they would think of this while in heaven.

　　To my mind, both of them have enough tolerance and will surely smile heartily now that an audacious new-comer is also exploring this tortuous path towards the art of Chinese painting—in a manner that top go (a Chinese strategy board game—note by the translator) masters are contending atop a summit. When both sides were locked in a heated battle with practically all the pieces down. All the people were asking themselves: Whither from? Whither to? But their soul searching led nowhere. All of a sudden, an impetuous young man threw in a chess piece with a bang, and with that ended the game. Wow, what an unprecedented master move! Who but everyone would not applaud this sudden enlightening masterstroke?

　　Who on earth is this new-comer? Jiashan, of course!