One morning in June, I went to Pingjun's home near the North Sixth Circle in Beijing as appointed. Pingjun took out his works one by one, ranging from his studies of his student days to his recent works, and showed them to us. This was the first time I saw so many works by him though I had known him for so many years. They certainly gave me a better understanding of him.
　　Pingjun's studio, rebuilt from a former large balcony, is located upstairs. It is not very large, but spacious enough for him to produce a painting about 2 meters long. The studio connects with the living room. Though not very ideal as the working area is not separated from the living area, such a studio seems a leisurely, quiet and private place. I am somewhat envious of his studio; on the contrary, I am rather averse to the now fashionable art zones where factory-like studios crowd together. When one is "producing" works in such a factory-like studio, he will feel strongly that he is merely working, and will naturally lack the sense of leisure and privacy, an indispensable condition, in my view, for artistic practice.
　　In Pingjun's studio stand several bookshelves full of books, most of which are about Tibetan Buddhism. I heard about Pingjun's familiarity with Tibetan Buddhism long ago, but I have never tried to find out whether this is something he is fond of or his belief. In short, in such a space, I think, one can easily calm down. How happy you will feel when you are facing a canvas with all distracting thoughts dispelled!
　　In about 1994, Pingjun began to turn to abstract painting. There is nothing intense or vehement in his abstract paintings, and they can be classified into two groups, one tending to expression through color, the other the writing-like manner. In the works characterized by leaping colors, even layers of red, blue, black and other colors are applied repeatedly, and scattered and faintly discernible light or dark dots emerge, regularly in appearance but occasionally in fact, from the gaps between these colors. In works of writing-like manner, bright colors are weakened intentionally, and the paintings are dominated by black and white tones and different gradations of gray. Brush strokes are varied and the painter's style and mood are distinct. Though different from each other, these two groups are the same in the repeated, elaborate and scrupulous applying of pigments.
　　In contrast to realistic painting, which portrays concrete images, abstract painting is imageless. However, the essence and character of abstract painting cannot be summarized in the word "imageless". Mark Rothko, the outstanding representative of abstract painting, insists that his paintings are "truthful". What is the "imageless" truthfulness? Rothko has already answered this question definitely. I think, there is some sense of "truthfulness" different from that of Rothko in Pingjun's abstract painting, or else he will not produce his "imageless" paintings so pertinaciously. What I want to say is that Pingjun's abstract painting reflects the truth in the face of nihility and the truth advancing to emptiness.

　　The concept of abstract painting originally appeared in the West. Abstract painting has it specific theories, ideas and artistic manifestations, and interpreting abstract painting according to Eastern thought constitutes the exchange and transformation between two kinds of cultures and their products. Interpreting abstract paintings by contemporary Chinese painters according to Eastern thought, in particular, may after all be one of the possible ways. Related to the "imageless", the world view regarding void as solid and nothingness as something existing took shape very early in classical Chinese thought, and hence the aesthetic realm of "emptiness" in Chinese art. "Emptiness" is stressed in ancient Chinese poetry, ci poetry, painting, calligraphy and music, for if the realm of "emptiness" is reached, the works will be flexible and their implications will be fully expressed. "Empty hills" is a classical imagery in Chinese poetics, and "insight into emptiness" is the path to self-cultivation and higher realm of Buddhists.
　　Shi Su wrote in his poem, "Though no man can be seen in an empty hill, rivers flow and flowers are in blossom still." There are neither people nor objects in the vast empty hills, but in fact such is not the case; instead, the merging of people with things is embodied here. "Empty hills" and "no man" mean here, rather than absolute absence of any person or thing, that only in an open and silent state may the scene in which "rivers flow and flowers are in blossom" without any interference be possible. For painters immersed in the creation of abstract painting, therefore, what they are faced with is not "imageless" things but lives growing vigorously, as energetic as all creatures in nature. In his paintings, in which others may find no people or things, the painter can capture sensitively the changes of clouds and wind and the charm of flowing rivers and blossoming flowers with colors and strokes he applies. Moreover, an abstract painting that seems to depict "flowing rivers and blossoming flowers" is both visual and acoustical. This reminds us of the synaesthesia referred to in the Western theory of abstract art. Abstract painting acts on the inner life, and abstract visual things can be transformed to acoustical impressions as in music. In ancient Chinese poetry, there are such lines as "Where can I find the smell of mountains and fragrance of flowers? Now I can hear them in the painting." The poet "watches the smell" and "hears the fragrance" before the painting; he is not "beholding the painting" but "listening to it". However, it doesn't show that ancients of China had the "abstract" sense as in modern art or the knowledge of "synaesthesia" as in modern psychology very long ago. In their mind, the poems, paintings and music that strive to reach a lofty realm are not fettered by concrete forms of sensation, and only the aura that is beyond concrete forms is where the quintessence of Chinese art lies.
　　Applying the quintessence of Chinese art to abstract painting will surely lead to the creation of a novel kind of abstract art that may enrich further the world of abstract art. Many forerunners have taken this path of art and have left their long shadows on it. Pingjun is also walking on this path. He has plunged into the realm of emptiness once and again, and in this process he has acquired the indescribable truthfulness and fullness.

Dr. Aimin Zhou, vice dean of the Painting Faculty, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University

Beijing, July 29, 2013

作者：Zhou,Aimin