水墨精神永远是凝固在坚实的山体中。——题记

　　在上个世纪，中国的水墨绘画遭遇了很多的挑战，这种挑战和疑问，甚至那种革命性话题，至今仍然没有消失的迹象。比如一个论断认为，中国的水墨不符合时代精神，不能反映现代人的感知或体验，将水墨的创造能力与社会变迁等同起来，认为水墨已经不在当代艺术史的视野之内，这是其一；另一种论调认为，中国水墨经过一千多年的发展，已经没有可以挖掘的深度和可能性了，所有该被探索的水墨创造力都已经被前人做过，也就是今天再也无法在笔墨的形式上超越前人。

　　在这种情况下，以现代艺术理论或当代的艺术理论为根据，对水墨作为绘画的合法性产生了质疑，虽然说仍然有大量的水墨画家继续在从事绘画，但无助于艺术史的撰写，也无助于从新的艺术理论去阐发它。结果，水墨在当代的艺术空间里、在人们的印象里，水墨不再当代，不再具有艺术的当代价值。水墨因此在中国的当代处境里显得很尴尬，一方面作为中国文化的载体，或曰传递强烈中国文化因素的水墨绘画却在今天的语境里得不到广泛的学术关注，而如果仅仅停留于古典的样式或因循守旧，总不是令人满意的结果，我们所说的水墨创造力并不指一种业余式的墨戏。

　　那么，水墨该如何具有再延伸、再推陈出新的可能呢？对此的回应有不同的策略，有的延续古典章法，细敲慢打，希望从古人的笔意中得一二真传；有的另辟蹊径，在媒介的转换上下足功夫，让水墨作为媒介与其负载的文化内涵分离；有的从现代主义艺术的形式革命上寻求水墨的笔墨革命，或曰水墨实验，希望走出另一条新路来；有的融入欧式画法，改造水墨绘画语言的胫骨，等等。在这样的局面下，对于艺术，个性永远是最具有意义和价值，个性是特殊观念的视觉化，个性既可能带来视觉经验的陌生化，也可能引起观念的冲击。就水墨而言，如何延伸水墨，不仅仅是笔墨构成的熟悉，而且也是一种艺术境界的磨炼。它应当超越于自娱自乐之上。今天的水墨需要气势和力量，需要阳刚的壮烈，而非阴柔的秀气。画家应该有大法度气象，如果中国水墨有所绘画力量的回归，应该强化那种大气派、大境界的雄壮绘画。宋人格调的山水为什么成为永恒的经典，依然是今人向往的境界？这里面是一种内敛的气质使之然，如果今天应该提倡或可以让水墨复兴其原本的创造力与力量的，就是这种豪迈的气势和雄浑的伟岸。如果中国水墨美术史还要续写，就应该关注那些坚持水墨内在逻辑发展的艺术家。

　　如何回应这百年来对水墨的挑战，是要看水墨新的创造力能做到怎样的程度。理论上可以论证很多批评的理由，实践上也要拿出应有的东西，使水墨显现为一种有生命力的独有艺术。

　　画家姬子从20世纪50年代末开始学习、创作中国山水画，经历了水墨绘画在50年代的国画现实主义运动，也经历了80年代现代主义对水墨的改造，也关注了90年代实验水墨的风风火火。姬子面对这些水墨的发展，不希望走重复或别人的路，而是要奋力画出自己的语言面貌来。姬子几十年沉浸在这种独立的探索中，以“画不惊人死不休”的戏言激励着自己，与水墨的本体生命守候在一起。对于笔墨存亡的争论、对于笔墨逻辑是否回归古典的倾向、对于水墨在当下凸显自身文化价值的热议，姬子都细心审视和思考，因为这些问题都是水墨画家安身立命的基础，如果没有清醒的认识和立场，作为画家将无以开展自己的艺术追求。鉴于此，他将自己的创作称作“墨道山水”，就是意在强化山水艺术的内涵和精神，继续以东方特有的眼光和思维来突出艺术个性，以今天的视觉经验来深化水墨的潜力。同时还不能落入原有的理论窠臼中，把笔墨当作评判的唯一标准，而是思考如何让水墨体现一种精神。这种精神永远是凝固在坚实的山体中，让识读者面对氤氲的大自然，生发出一种文化精神的共鸣。姬子希望这些自然之境被赋予一种超验的内在属性，使读者体验到来自于大自然的精神力量，而不是简单地画一画风景图，只有形式、没有内涵。所以说，“墨道山水”对于姬子就是探索“水墨之道”，探索水墨绘画在今天如何延展与深化的精神内涵问题。

　　从语言上，姬子力图从作品图式上打破传统的程式化构图，一方面继承部分的传统散点透视，一方面也组合多重的视觉透视关系，让布局展开、景物拓宽，以改变传统的虚实关系，一反传统的虚无淡化，而把西画的虚实关系融进去，以加强作品的张力和一种版画效果的黑白关系、光效应。姬子还大胆使用“黑墨”，用构图的对比关系来加强画面的整体纵深感。在形迹语言方面，姬子追求自然的“大笔无痕即有痕”的境界，多采用“积墨法”，层层积染，浑厚天成。这些笔法既脱胎于水墨的经典语言，也是姬子经年累月进行实践的结果。画无常法、定法，唯有不断思考、勇于探索，才可以获得水墨绘画的积累和成绩。

　　从东方人的角度去看待山水，常常本能地联想到“天人合一”这样的文化理论。至于是否具有这样的品格，或者当代水墨是否能够传达这样的境界，则大有疑惑，不可以想当然地认为任何的笔墨绘画都具有这样的特点。因此，“天人合一”在阐释当代的东方水墨绘画时就陷入了怪圈，把本应该研究的目标当作自然的结论，套在许许多多的水墨山水上。在这一点上，姬子的主旨不是简单地贴标签，他不希望用一种已经虚化、用滥的语言来描述自己的作品。相反，在今天的东方人看来，他们对大自然、对于环境应该具有更多的理解和文化思考，换言之，要用今天的知识理解去看待通过水墨表达出来的绘画境地。理解决定了人们的视觉经验，而水墨在当代仍然需要理解和阐释，而且需要用今天的眼光深入到绘画的本体与超验中。

　　姬子再访水墨历史的创造力，就是要从水墨媒介与文化质素中深究其内在的可能性，让水墨的历史脉络不断延展新的视觉经验与心理感应，焕发水墨创造力的新机。艺术是限制之下的自由拓展，只有冲破水墨历史积累的限制才能再次将水墨的表现力提升，这不仅是水墨绘画的重大课题，也是艺术在当代转型的重大机遇。

REVISITING THE CREATIVE POWER OF INK PAINTING

-- Regarding Jizi's the Dao of Ink Paintings

Wang Chunchen

　　The spirit of ink paintings is forever set in the solidity of mountains.  - Inscription

　　In the last century, Chinese ink painting encountered many challenges. These challenges and doubts, even concerning certain types of revolutionary themes, still show no signs of disappearing even today. For example, one judgment holds that Chinese ink paintings do not accord with the spirit of the times, and are thus incapable of reflecting the perceptions and experiences of people today. If we equate the creative ability of ink painting with the changes in society, we will recognize that ink painting is already missing on the art history horizon. This is one view. Another argument states that Chinese ink painting has undergone more than a thousand years of development, and there is no longer any depth or possibility left in it. All of the creative explorations that had to be made in ink painting have already been made by our predecessors. That is to say that there is no way today for us to surpass our predecessors in the forms of ink painting.

　　Under these circumstances, and based on modern or contemporary art theory, using ink for painting has raised questions of legitimacy. Although there are still a great many artists who continue to paint using ink, they make no contributions to the writing of art history, or to the theories of art that elucidate art history. As a result, in the contemporary art scene, and in the impressions of the public, ink painting is no longer contemporary and no longer has contemporary value. For these reasons, ink painting in the contemporary Chinese scene, cuts an awkward figure. On the one hand, it is a bearer of Chinese culture, and some say that ink painting, although a strong transmitter of Chinese culture, nonetheless, in today's context, does not receive broad academic attention. But, if we merely remain in place as preservers or followers of the ancient style, that result will please no one, because the creativity of ink painting that we are discussing is not just amateurs playing with ink.

　　Well then, what is the possibility for ink painting to come up with something new, something that will allow ink painting to continue? Those who respond to this question employ different tactics. Some want to extend the ancient method and carefully scrutinize it in the hope of obtaining a truth of two from the intent of the ancient ink painters.  Others want to take a new path by exerting efforts in changing ink painting's mediums to allow ink painting to separate its medium from the load of cultural connotations that it bears. Others are searching the revolution in modern art forms for a brush and ink revolution in ink painting, while others talk about ink experimentations hoping to find a new road out. Still others integrate European style painting methods in order to transform the language of ink painting at its base, and so on.

　　As for art in such a situation, only individuality will always have significance and value. Individuality is the visualization of special concepts. Individuality not only can bring with it the unfamiliarity of visual experiences, but it can also bring about an assault on our concepts. As for ink painting, how to extend the life of ink painting is not merely a matter of familiarity with brush and ink composition but rather a honing of an artistic realm. Ink painting must surpass being an amusement. Today's ink painting demands momentum and strength, audacity not delicacy. Painters must paint the imposing appearance of a great moral standard and, if Chinese ink painting is to revive its artistic vitality, then we must strengthen that school of painters and that realm of magnificent paintings. Why did landscape paintings in the style of the Song painters become enduring classics and are still the realm of painting for which people today long? Because in these paintings there is a type of restrained quality that made them so. Today, we must encourage or allow ink paintings to revive their original creativity and creative strength, and this then requires heroic momentum and vigorous commitment. If we are to continue to write the history of China's ink paintings, then we must turn our attention to those artists who adhere to the development of the internal logic of ink paintings.

　　How to respond to the past hundred years of challenges to ink painting means seeing how far the new, creative ability of ink painting extends. In theory we can demonstrate the reasons for so much criticism, but practically we also have to grasp what is necessary to ensure that ink painting appears as a unique, viable art form.

　　The artist Jizi started to study and create Chinese landscape paintings from the end of the 1950's. He experienced the 1950's movement for realism in traditional Chinese painting, and he also experienced the 1980's modernist alterations to ink painting. Likewise, he closely followed the 1990's abrupt and reckless experimentation with ink paintings. Jizi confronted all these developments in ink painting, but he did not wish to duplicate a path or follow another but rather to struggle to paint with the features of his own artistic language. For several decades, Jizi immersed himself in independent explorations and inspired himself by quipping that "unless the paintings amaze people, I will not rest even after death,"  while he waited together with the fate of ink painting itself.

　　With regard to the controversies over the fate of brush and ink painting, over whether or not brush and ink painting has a tendency to return to the classical form, the heated debates about ink painting at present highlighting its own cultural values, Jizi carefully examined and pondered these issues as they formed the foundation for the careers of artists who painted with ink. If an artist did not clearly comprehend and take a stand on these issues, then as an artist he would have no way to develop his own artistic pursuits. In light of this, Jizi called his own creations "the Dao of Ink Landscapes" with the intention of strengthening the meaning and spirit of landscape art. Jizi continued to use the East's unique vision in order to highlight his artistic individuality and to use today's visual experiences to deepen the potential of ink painting. At the same time, Jizi did not fall into the stereotypes of the original theories, but made brush and ink the sole criterion for judging, and pondered how best to allow ink paintings express a certain kind of spirit. This spirt is forever set in the solidity of mountains; it allows the audience to come face to face with nature; and it brings forth a sympathetic response to the spirit of a culture. Jizi hoped that these natural environments would be imbued with intrinsic properties that were transcendental, and that would allow the audience to intuit a spiritual energy that derives from nature. Jizi was not simply painting landscapes that only had form and not content. For this reason we say that for Jizi "the Dao of Ink Landscapes" were explorations of "the Dao of ink painting," explorations of the issue of how today's ink paintings could extend and deepen their spiritual content.

　　From the aspect of artistic language, Jizi strove in his artwork drawings to break with traditional stylized compositions. On the one hand, he continued a portion of the traditional scattered perspective, while on the other hand, he combined many kinds of visual perspective relationships, allowing the layouts to expand and the scenes to broaden in order to change the traditional relationship between the abstract and the concrete. Jizi opposed the traditional de-emphasizing of the abstract, instead he merged it with western painting's connection of abstract to concrete in order to strengthen the artwork's surface tension and the printmaking effect of the black and white relationship, as well as its optical effect. Jizi also boldly uses "dead black,"  and uses the contrasts between patterns to strengthen the painting's overall feeling of depth. As to his artistic sign language, Jizi seeks the natural realm where "the great brush leaves no sign and that is its sign." Jizi often uses the "accumulation of black method:" layers of stain accumulate so that depth is naturally achieved. These brush strokes are both born out of the classical language of ink painting and also are the results of Jizi's long years of practice. The paintings have no permanent, set method, but are the result of constantly pondering and boldly exploring. And only after this pondering and exploring could Jizi obtain his accumulated experiences and achievements in ink paintings.

　　Looking at landscape paintings from the perspective of an Easterner, I often instinctively associate landscapes with the cultural theory of "Heaven and man united."  As to whether or not landscape paintings possess this characteristic, or whether or not contemporary landscape paintings are capable of achieving this kind of artistic realm, this is quite doubtful, and we cannot assume that every brush and ink painting has this feature of "Heaven and man united." For this reason, when we use "Heaven and man united" to interpret contemporary Eastern ink paintings, we are caught in a vicious cycle where we take what should be the object of research and make it into a conclusion, and use that conclusion to cover a great many ink landscape paintings. On this point, Jizi's theme is not simply a matter of labeling, as he does not expect to use a language that is already empty and overused to describe his own artworks. On the contrary, in the view of contemporary Easterners, we need more understanding of and cultural thinking about nature and the environment. In other words, we should use contemporary knowledge and comprehension to regard the realm of paintings that are expressed via ink. Comprehension decides people's visual experience, and ink painting in the contemporary period requires comprehension and explanation. It is necessary, moreover, to use today's insight to penetrate the ontology and transcendence of paintings.

　　Jizi's revisiting the history of the creative power of ink painting is in-depth research, from ink painting mediums and cultural qualities, on ink painting's inherent viability. This research allows ink painting's historical context to expand continuously to new visual experiences and psychological responses, and it allows ink painting to shine with new opportunities for ink painting's creative power. Art develops freely but with restrictions, so that only by breaking through the accumulated restrictions of the history of ink painting are we able once again to promote the expressive power of ink painting. This is not only an important issue for ink painting but also a significant opportunity for the contemporary transformation of art.

　　Translated by E. F. Connelly, PhD

1.“Truth” here is zhendi, a Buddhist term that means the “genuine truth” of a sage or person of insight in contrast to sudi, the “vulgar truth,” the truth of appearance, not reality.
2.This sentence is a play on a famous line from the Tang Dynasty Poet Du Fu: “Unless the poems amaze people, I will not rest even after death.”
3.In his “Compilation of Jizi’s Aphorisms on Art,” Jizi explains that, unlike what artists call “false black,” “dead black” has no transparency whatsoever.
4.“Heaven and man united” (tian ren he yi) is a Chinese philosophical principle common to both Confucianism and Daoism.