Li Haiwang was ready for publishing his album and invited me to write the preface. After seeing the layout of the album, I found that the work was rich enough to reflect his ten years of exploration. This album consisted of three parts: prosperity, music of nature and human being. The contents of the three parts indicate history, nature and human beings respectively, demonstrating the integrity of the artist's spiritual world from different aspects.

　　Since the new century, Li Haiwang has been taking the trouble to paint his lotus pond ("music of nature" series). After the European tour in 2008, he took interested in the ancient architecture. So he went to Pingyao hoping to find the inspiration in that well-preserved ancient city. The result was that the history of the Jin-merchant sparked his creative impulse. Those well-preserved Chinese security companies, exchange shops, money shops, treasurers and drafts all deeply attracted him. All of a sudden, these cultural symbols with a heavy sense of history led him into that "Jin-merchant" era, which had dominated the domestic business circle for more than five centuries. The achievements made by Shanxi merchants were tremendous based on their own business principle. "The booming business and abundant wealth help you go everywhere and have lots of friends" was their self-portrait. Their business principle was "driving interests with justice", fully reflecting the spirit of the Confucian culture. Therefore, the success of merchants in Ming and Qing Dynasties was attributable to the fact that they had the support of such a cultural spirit, which was summarized to "Jin-merchant spirit" integrated with "enterprising spirit, professional dedication and community spirit". This spirit throughout the sense of business, organization and management and mental quality of Jin-merchants, can also be described as "the soul of Jin-merchants".

　　In this collection of works, Li Haiwang was trying to lead the viewers into that flourishing history through some historical records and documents of firms established by Jin-merchants and the rendering of the gloomy atmosphere, because, as a person of Shanxi, he was proud of this period of history. Shanxi people took the initiative in China's financial field with their wisdom. Therefore, Li Haiwang's works were not only the pure exploration in the aesthetic terms, but also had the meaning of "evocation" and direct realistic pertinence. Let's look at those "coal bosses" colluding with businessmen and becoming rich by robbing underground resources, where could we find the shadow of "Jin-merchant spirit"?

　　"Music of nature" was a series of his works which he had been paining for many years. The variable lotus pond all the year round was his creative motif. Each time he looked at the lotus pond, Li Haiwang would have new feelings, new ideas and new desire for expression. Therefore, though he had drawn so many works with the theme of "locus pond", he didn't feel the repetition, because he could always find a new angle to illustrate the "motif". You would find the ever-changing lotus pond had inexhaustible beauties: the beauty of lines, the beauty of color, the beauty of form and structure and the beauty of artistic conception, etc. and different works demonstrated different tones: fresh, bright and beautiful, desolate, dignified or brilliant, etc. The music of nature, the scene of nature, here the artist could gain access to a land to express his feelings and his audiences could enjoy the beauty of nature.

　　In the performance, these works adopted two methods generally: one was an idiomatic painting language, winning by the expression power of color and light; another was combined with the traditional ink dominated by the performance characteristics of ink color and lines. The lotus pond had always been a common theme of traditional paintings and many masters had made remarkable successes in this field. The aesthetic tastes reflected Li Haiwang's works of lotus ponds were undoubtedly connected with these traditions. However, he didn't imitate the traditional ink schema, but paid more attention to the sense of form and sense of structure, paid more attention to the overall atmosphere of the painting and the creation of the tone.

　　"Human" part was the by-product of Li Haiwang's teaching. In his long-term teaching, he inevitably gave students the demonstration. This process just gave him the opportunity to draw the human body, thus to display the body. His human body usually had the nature of the sketch, which may be bound up with his demonstration. However, the short time could reflect his ability to quickly grasp the object. The human in his painting was drawn concisely and vividly, full of life character. Unlike a human body model with a fixed posture, it was a human body posture appearing accidentally. These free and relaxed works seemed to better reflect Li Haiwang's artistic talent.

　　Three years ago, an unexpected disaster made Li Haiwang suspend his painting and struggle on the lifeline, but the belief of returning to the painting career supported him and he was about to finish this sudden misfortune. During the healing period, he went to Qinghai with his sick leg, drawing a number of landscapes. It was the love of arts endowing him with the indomitable spirit that helped him continue to climb to the peak of art.

作者：贾方舟