几年的时间，汤志义就将中国漆搅得风生水起，这对于一位70年代后的画家而言是十分难能可贵的。难能可贵的不仅仅因为汤志义的作品《渔舟飘至》荣获第十届全国美展金奖，还在于汤志义作品的艺术指向代表了一种潜在的、跃动的、向上的以及无法预示的力量。

　　在喧闹的现代都市里，钢筋水泥的丛林把人们分割在现代文明的笼子里，生存空间如此近在咫尺，但人与人的心却变得那么遥远。于是，焦渴的人们期冀摆脱生理与心理、物质与精神的双重压力，回归到自然中去，回归到质朴单纯的牧歌时代的往日时光，汤志义的《莲蓬系列》无疑就是这种回应个人内心呼唤的原生态的心灵记录，也是对人们焦灼和脱弱的灵魂的温柔抚慰。

　　在我看来，汤志义《莲蓬系列》的最大特点是她的象征意义——这是一个关于生命轮回、时光回溯和内心独白的故事。

　　莲蓬是生命的谢幕，生命的谢幕有多种形式，但莲蓬的形式却是一种美丽的神的形式。想像她灿烂地绽放着的花期，是那样的婀娜多姿，在水中闪动着太阳的光芒，升腾着美妙的气息。莲的神圣正是源其生长于水中，而水正是构成生命的最初的起源。于是，浮出水面的莲花便有了子宫的象征，孕育的比喻。

　　莲花日出而开，日落而闭，与太阳有关，从而成为生命的神源。出自黑暗而在阳光下盛开的莲花，是灿烂的精神之花的象征。污水是混沌世界的写照，莲花代表出自其中的有形世界，这个世界在水面绽开，是神的恩惠。难怪周敦颐的《爱莲说》塑造的理想中的人间君子形象成为千古不朽的名篇。

　　莲花还隐喻着永生与复活、灵性与觉悟。

　　佛经中有《妙法莲花经》，佛陀有“一双莲花眼，一双莲花手和两条莲花腿”之说，涅磐的境界就是从这里至真至纯地显示出来。“一鉴方塘十亩莲，亭亭翠盖拥群山。常心最是泉源滴，洗耳无为天籁喧。好名吟成花亦笑，禅机悟到月初圆。归来两袖沾香露，犹是依依不肯眠。”这是一位古代高僧的诗，清美自然的诗心诗境，感人真切。

　　汤志义的《莲蓬系列》巧妙地把孤寂的抒情性与少许的神秘感美妙地结合在一起，艳与寂的漆语，在《莲蓬系列》中表现得淋漓尽致。中国红、中国金、中国黑、中国绿，既随心所欲，又自然天成，充分体现了他对传统中国漆的稔熟的当代性把握。

　　艳和寂是《莲蓬系列》独有的品性。

　　艳是漆的一种别样的美。这是一种灿烂的华美，也是一种张扬的精美，当这种艳被汤志义赋予莲蓬特殊的含义时，便有了崭新的内涵。凋败的艳丽，是一种有力量的存在，也是一种厚重的生命的呈现。

　　寂则是漆的另一种雅致的美，是不动声色的美，是最传神的美，这种美在不经意中常常令人怦然心动。汤志义《莲蓬系列》中的许多作品都深深地弥漫着这样安详的寂，生命的原生，移动的“身体”，忧伤的爱，来无影去无踪，全都不留痕迹，虚实之间充满了和谐的律动。

　　艳与寂也是莲蓬的生命方式，从轰轰烈烈到悄无声息，从生到死。

　　当一切都归于平静之时，莲的生命得到了升华。

林公翔   著名艺术评论家

　　The Lacquer Language of Color and Loneliness

　　- A Read into Tang Zhiyi's Lotus Seedpod Series

　　-Lin Gongxiang (renowned art critic)

　　In only a short few years of time, Tang Zhiyi has sparked quite a flash in China's lacquer art field. This is very commendable for someone born after the 1970s. It is commendable not only because Tang Zhiyi's work, Approaching Fisher Boat, has been awarded the gold prize at the Tenth National Exhibition of Fine Arts, but also because his work of art represent a potential, vibrant, upbeat, and unpredictably powerful strength.

　　In the rustling and bustling of the modern city, the concrete jungle separates people in different divided cages of modern civilization. Our living space is so within our reach, but the heart of one person and that of another person has drifted into distance. So, the anxious people are eagerly hoping to get rid of parched dual pressures of physical and psychological, physical and spiritual torture, and to go back to nature, back to the simpler old era of rustic idyll lifestyle. Tang Zhiyi's Lotus Seedpod series is, without a doubt, a response to that inner call to go back to the original and soulful experience; it is also a gentle comfort and consolation to the anxious beating heart and weakened soul.

　　The way I see it, the most prominent feature of Tang Zhiyi's Lotus Seedpod Series is its symbolism - this is a story about the circle of life, about time backtracking and about inner monologue.

　　Lotus seedpod marks the closing of life's curtain. There are a variety of ways to close the curtain of life, but the lotus seedpod certainly knows the most beautiful and most sacred kind. Imagine her brilliantly blooming youth is so very graceful and amorous, sparkling with the light of the sun in the water and rising up in an enchanting flair. The sacredness of lotus is that it is grown in the water, and that the water constitutes the most primal origin of life. Thus, the lotus surfaced above the water is endowed with the metaphorical meaning as the womb and birth.

　　Lotus opens its flower with the sun rising and closes at sunset. It synchronizes with the sun, thus the sacred origin of life. It stretches from the darkness and blossoms under the sun rays, thus the symbol as the flower of brilliant spiritual energy. Dirty mud is the portrayal of the chaos in our world, whereas Lotus represents something comes out from the tangible world that is blooming over the water under God's grace. No wonder the ideal noble men depicted in Zhou Dunyi's (1017-1073) Ode to the Lotus Flower has become a timeless masterpiece.

　　Lotus is also the metaphor for eternal life and resurrection, spirituality and consciousness.

　　In one of classic Buddhist scriptures, the Lotus Sutra, it believes that the Buddha has "a pair of lotus eyes, a pair of lotus hands and two lotus legs," and that the state of Nirvana is a display starting from here of the truest and purest. A poem written by a monk in ancient times goes, one pond grows ten acres of lotus, and the refreshing green stands like tall slim beautiful women covered by mountain forest the realm of pure and true displayed; a peace of mind is the origin of spring, wash your ear keeping it deaf to the noises of paradise; a good name will make the flowers smile, Buddha's allegorical word will be understood when a full moon can be seen; coming back with both sleeves touched with fragrant dews, the mood is so beautiful that one cannot sleep." Such a beautiful and natural poetic conception is so very touching and real.

　　Tang Zhiyi's Lotus Seedpod Series ingeniously combine the lonely lyricism with a touch of mystery. This lacquer language of color and loneliness is played to its fullest in the Lotus Seedpod Series. Colors such as Chinese red, Chinese gold, Chinese black, and Chinese green are applied at ease and come off naturally, demonstrating Tang Zhiyi's skillful mastery to adopt traditional lacquer ware techniques to modern times.

　　Color and loneliness are the unique features of the Lotus Seedpod Series.

　　Color and loneliness form a different kind of beauty. It is a brilliantly gorgeous. It is also strikingly exquisite. When Tang Zhiyi gives these colors to lotus it comes with a special meaning and a new connotation. The withered lotus, presented in colors, is a presence of strength, also a display of a full-cycled life.

　　Loneliness is another kind of elegant beauty. It is the quietly beauty. It is the most legendary beauty. This beauty is often not composed yet breathtaking. Many pieces in Tang's Lotus Seedpod Series is immensely infused with this kind of serene silence, the primal life, the moving "body", the sad love, coming and going without a trace, filled with a harmonious rhythm between the real and the surreal.

　　Color and loneliness is also the way of life, from the vibrantly wild to silently quite, from birth to death.

　　When all comes down peacefully, the life of lotus is sublimed.

作者：林公翔