Eight years ago, I wrote an article for Mr. Jia (entitled "monk"and "saints" , "published in the "art" , 2003. 3. April). At that time, he was addicted to the comprehensive material, creating a large number of masterpieces between abstract and performance (mainly working at symbol). Earlier, he experienced two stages——the realistic oil painting and performance art. He has awarded in the exhibition, increasing visibility rapidly. But, since then, he seemed like "conceal one's identity", suddenly disappearing from the field! Eight years later, he finally came back. He called me and invited me to his Changping Shangyuan Art Village studio to see his paintings. After seeing, I was surprised to find that he totally changed, and was a one hundred and eighty degree turn! Not letting me sit up and take notice, the paintings were just like made by another person. Looking at the picture that day, I almost doubted my own eyes: were the paintings really created by Mr. Jia? But without a doubt, these were really created by him and were the best proof of his hard working.

　　1. To take the laws of nature change as a teacher, to learn to adapt to the evolution of all things

　　Image is the basement of the paintings of Mr Jia.

　　Mr Jia has completed fifty or sixty pieces of "great landscape" creation. (I spent nearly 2 days to appreciate it).The number is less odd than the size of these paintings . Away from 10 meters, towering spectacular integral layout; From five meters to see, orderly structure, all paths and powerfully hills have their origin and end. One meter away, grass, rock, waterfall, farmer, porters, trail……are all distinguishable. There are too many things for people to see "(from" the authors report ").

　　Across the Chinese landscape painting, "feasible, hopefully, can swim, can live in" (that is, by the historians referred to as the "panoramic landscape") ——this is an old dream. This ideal finally yielded good results in the five dynasties and song dynasty, producing a batch of landscape painters, such as Jing, Guan, Dong, Ju, Fan Kuan, Li Cheng, etc. At the same time, this also gradually become a great tradition of the landscape painting. However, the paintings of literati become popular. Till the Ming dynasty, more so - called "civil case" say, this great tradition was interrupted for nearly one thousand years, landscape painting began to wane because of many other various reasons. Since modern times, it seems to renew the "feasible, hopefully, can swim, can live in" tradition for the reason some people argued that we should use the realistic way to improve the traditional Chinese painting. Performances of the masters of Li Keran, Shi Lu, Qian Songyan are outstanding.

　　Mr. Jia doesn't follow the "new Chinese painting" path. He takes more attention on the history of the painting, connecting with the great traditions of the five dynasties to the northern song dynasty, and put it to an extreme. This is entirely new.

　　The words of "extreme", "special" mean "photo"  that advocated by the ancient people, which means "to write according to the fact" , "the eyes and the heart should both be the same" (written by Zongbing), "  Temperament " (written by Jinghao). On this basis, people take more attention on the realistic even "super realism" and modern carving techniques (except for some slightly abstract rockets landscape). And just like that, it creates a more three - dimension (relative to the land), lofty feeling. When facing these pictures, it can let a person think of Li Bai's poem: "when the white have a footpath, it can cross off E'mei top", " A winding road ahead, revolve around the mountains ", "Miles and miles of mountains, blue sky, looked from a distance of less than a foot, long pines on the precipice, constitute a beautiful picture." At the same time, it also makes the clouds, trees, houses, animals and gravel, character, category details more concrete and vivid. Mr. Jia's series are not boring, but all plain and naive. Every composition of the masterpieces pulls tension between the details and the main object, as to constitute advanced natural landscape and big state.

　　Mr. Jia's creation of the "big landscape, state" is not the general mountains and the rivers. On the contrary, the steep cliffs here have the distinct and strong landscape characteristic, distinctly making people appreciate them. All the mountains and rivers belong to the Taihang Mountains. Previously, a dramatic change has happened in ancient Yan Zhao earth. Two movements of the mountains contributed to the Taihang mountain peaks, and one million years after, formed the today's Taihang scenery. ——"Mountains have their own life, meanwhile water have their own life". (Guo Xi father and son said it). Taihang Mountains is one of China's vast landscape. Its beauty shocked the world. For one thousand year, many poets have sung for it and also drawn for it. Most of the Taihang Mountains were once one of the great birthplace of the Chinese landscape paintings. In the past, we had the masters of Hao Jing, Cheng Li, Xi Guo. Today we have Youfu Jia, Lizhou Yang, Yingchun Wang, Youben Hu. But Mr. Jia's "Landscape Painting Of Magnificent Scenery" is different from the ancient people and the modern people. When compared to the ancient people, his paintings are more modern. But his masterpieces seem more realistic and natural than the contemporary ones as the result of the sense of ancient. All in all, he has his own way to express his feelings and creates his own efficient way to record the charm of the Taihang Mountains.

　　2. Love for the land and people

　　Spirit is the soul of Mr. Jia's "Landscape Painting Of Magnificent Scenery" .

　　As the saying goes, in The Xuanhe Painting Catalogue, " landscape painting is for expressing admiration for virtue of heaven and feelings of everything" . It shares the same meaning of "love for the land and people" . Looking into the beauty of the series, "Landscape Painting Of Magnificent Scenery" , we can find that it contains two points mentioned above:

　　Firstly, this series focus on the image of father, setting it as the backbone of Taihangers, even Chinese. With his deep love for the land, it also embodies the "admiration for virtue of heaven" . Secondly, these paintings also highlight the image of mothers in Taihang Mountains, who pour their love on their homeland and people. This is the reflection of expressing the feelings of everything.

　　Different works will be discussed as follows.

　　The first category —— " love for the land"  includes relatively pure landscape paintings, which far outnumbers the category of "homesickness" . It has about thirty to forty works, constituting the main frame of "Landscape Painting Of Magnificent Scenery" . In this category, Mr.Jia highlights eight features of Taihang Mountains: greatness, magnificence, momentum, iron, desolation, remoteness, air and charm.

　　Greatness means that Taihang Mountains are really great in volume and size. In Deep Valley (2010), there are remote mountains and cloud - covered valley (long shot); lofty peaks and steep cliffs (medium shot); gullies, pools, a stone bridge and underwood (close shot); and clouds are moving and a waterfall flies straight down. Scenery of miles around is all displayed in this painting.

　　Magnificence is used to describe the mountains' form and bearing. For example, from a low angle, A Silent And Secluded Spring Flows Through The Ages (2009) presents a main peak that rises from the earth and reaches to the sky. Placed in the middle, the main peak is surrounded and set off by well - spaced and overlapping mountains, as well as canyons, waterfalls and moving clouds, which further show its height and arrogance.

　　Momentum refers to the mountains' might in dynamic and static states. In My Heart Longs for Seclusion in Taihang Mountains (2007), a fragmented landform is filled with rocks and gullies in various shapes, layer upon layer of peaks and knolls, and also scattered cloud clusters. The painting has motion in quiescence, and it might can deeply overwhelm readers.

　　Iron, is not only in aesthetics, but also in spirituality. Iron Cliff (2008) describes a sky - high screen - like mountain that looks like an iron rod standing erect between heaven and earth, and remaining still regardless of wild wind, thick clouds and passing years. We can say that any painting in "Landscape Painting Of Magnificent Scenery"  can show the beauty of mightiness and manliness. Both characteristics are indeed the theme of the series!

　　Desolation, the essence of past ages, reflects the beauty between time and space. In Crystal - clear Stream (2008), two mountains stand facing each other and a waterfall plunges straight down the deep canyon with a deafening sound floating in the air. The cliffside is shockingly cracky and rough. How can it take on such a look but experiencing the erosion of winds, rains and thunders for millions of years? The texture beyond the painting itself also renders readers feelings of vicissitudes. In Chinese, desolation means distance and boundlessness as well. It can create a superorganic feeling when one faces vast space, and Listening To Sounds Of Nature In The Cold (2011) is an example that can trigger such sentiment. Without desolation and distance, how can we see the eternity of Taihang Mountains?

 　　Remoteness is to demonstrate space levels. From a distance view, The Scene of Open And Clean Ends of The World (2008) embraces the marvelous scene of broad, high and deep space. The painting has five to six gradations, which alternate each other in space like huge waves tumbling from the near to the skyline. It is much more than unfathomable! The Deep Valleys mentioned above, has even more space levels, thus leaving more sense of depth and intangibleness. The depth of space adds to the loneness of landscape, so its delights, spirituality and elegance are all latent in the space. The feature of the series is that the beauty of space is well dealt with.

　　Taihang Mountains have an air of vigor and majesty. The painting the Peak called Immortals Playing Chess (2004) has a pyramid structure with large white space, where mountains look as if they are floating on boundless seas and their peaks almost stick into the sky. In The Cloud - covered Village (2008), extending cliffs in the middle are like forests; the steep and bottomless canyons seem to be chopped by axes; fog spreads all over the sky and the earth, building an air of plentiful vigor and countless changes. This is indeed a grand beauty of nature.

　　Generally, a mountain cannot be both desolated and charming because charm is often associated with "feminine"  or "graceful" . However, as yin and yang in Chinese philosophy are complementary with no exception, there is no lack of charm of life and aftertaste in Mr. Jia's Landscape Painting Of Magnificent Scenery. In Listening To Sounds Of Nature In the Cold, the trickle flows to winding rivers and then forms wide waterfalls that fly down to the deep pool. Besides, lush forests and mists add to a special charm and profound meaning of the scene. Scenes Of The Deep Valley (2007) also has a three - gradation structure in close shot: the spring is approaching as twigs are turning green; people come and go across the stone arch bridge; angling beside the stream, old fishermen are drunk with the scenery.

　　Eight features above not only display that the land is rich in beauty, but also embody the spirituality of Chinese by symbolism or metonymy that "a gentleman compares virtue to jade" .

　　The second category —— " love for the people"  are exemplified by about twenty works, like Millennium Ancient Village (2010), Savoring Hometown (2008), Cloud - covered Village (2008), Years Stay in Remote Mountains (2008), Through The Years (2004), Taihang Households (2006), Listening To Hometown (2007). Mr. Jia elaborately describes hundreds of villages inside mountains. There are randomly scattered houses, winding passes between hills, working or relaxing mountaineers, flocks and herds in the hillside, vigorous grass and trees among huge rocks, hanging waterfalls and reposing streams……They are all presented to readers in a clear, plain and natural way. This place is exactly like the Peach Blossom Spring created by Tao Yuanming.

　　In a reflective and emotional way, Mr. Jia deeply recalls his childhood mountains, as well as ancient villages which have a world of differences from modern metropolis. It's a release of homesickness, and also a rational reflection on both rural and urban civilizations. It is the hardship, diligence and plainness that Taihangers develop as days go by that remain forever the foundation of Chinese and spiritual wealth worth of pursuing by people living in metropolis. No matter how far the civilization evolves, those mountain and villages are always our root. However, for those who are lost in material and noisy cities, Mr. Jia's "Landscape Painting Of Magnificent Scenery"  sincerely call them "to get out of this and go back home! My fields and garden will be overgrown with weeds, I must go back. It was my own doing that made my mind as my body's slave. Why should I go on in melancholy and lonely grief? ……I have no desire for riches, and no expectation of Heaven. Now planting my staff to take up a hoe, or climbing the east hill and whistling long, or composing verses beside the clear stream……"  (Tao Yuanming, Homecoming)

　　What I discussed above may be the practical significance of Mr. Jia's series Homesickness and Love For The People.

　　3. cultural heritage

　　Inheriting is the basement of the creation of Mr. Jia's paintings.

　　Han Zhuo, a poet of Song dynasty, has told us that "if a painter did not follow the traditional rules, barely blindly satisfying the masses, he would not surpass the other painters. And such people were not the real painters and it would be hard to discuss with them. People in today's life took more attention on pursuing the fame and wealth. There was so rare to find a person totally devoting himself in studying."  Removing the year of the above saying(about 1121 years ago), it is completely suitable for today's landscape paintings, and the whole art field. One thousand years later, we are still encountered with the difficulties and problems as the ancient people confronted. So we should examine ourselves on the basis of the ancient, which may awake us.

　　From this aspect Mr. Jia，accompanying with his masterpieces， sets a positive example for this era.

　　First, with a natural attitude, he can bear the poor condition and the sense of loneliness. What's more, he obeys with the traditional methods and has lived in the Taihang Mountains for more than ten years, adhering to the ideal and the pursuit of dream. All of these have gone beyond the fame and fortune. How precious for him to do this for so many years!

　　Second, he inherits and carries forward the spirit of "landscape" of the elders, following the old saying that "When reflecting the nature, we should have our own subjective idea. " (ZongBing said it) He works so hard and finally sets the "Taihang" for his motif, with this spirit, reconstructing the spirit of China. The "landscape" is no longer the boring symbol of China, merely acting on the surface.

　　Thirdly, he held the opinion that there exists same points among changes. (Dai Xi said, Qing dynasty). He falls back for going forward and sees the popular things as the elegant ones.(All of these take courage.).At the same time, he transfers the perspective to provide us a big landscape, inheriting the ancient paintings and having a unique style. He provides us with the visual arts "feast", using his delicate words and superb painting skills.

　　Fourthly, he pursues masculinity, appreciating the old saying that "Natural movements are strong, accordingly, people should also act like that, striving constantly. " (Confucius).This has been the tenet and features of "north school landscape painting". However, this idea has been rejected by painters of the Yuan, Ming, Qing dynasty. Today, such trends of rejection are increasing, and it is so urgent to set a model for us, picking up the slack, creating a sense of masculinity and crashing the withering circumstances. Mr. Jia has this ambition and mixes it with his own practice of arts, providing the "north school"  paintings a good chance to develop. Before him, Youfu Jia and Zhenkuan Liang have outstanding performance in this trend. Mr. Jia's activities create another example in evaluating the "north and south school"  and realizing the pattern of "holding the different ideas at the same time." (In the past, people had reviewed.)

　　Except for his "Landscape Painting Of Magnificent Scenery" , he also tries to create some abstract patterns of landscape. Even though they are not finished, they also reflect his next directions of creations. We are looking forward to them.

　　Jia spends 10 years to grind the swords and we are waiting to see the great beauty.

January 25th to February 16th, 2012. Finished in Nanjing, Caolv house.

作者：Chen,Xiaoxin