李唐教授现任北京大学“中国传统艺术文化研究所”研究员，兼该所“佛教文化研究室”主任。我认识李唐教授是在2009年香港西方寺为欢迎北京《佛教文化》杂志主编凌海成先生和李唐教授一行访港而举行的宴席及其当天的座谈会上。既是座谈，总得发言。在我印象中，李唐教授是最后才做发言的。他没有高谈阔论，没有滔滔不绝，没有一二三四，没有套话废话。在我印象中，他的发言，简短、平淡。简短中见纯朴，平淡中见谦和。一个艺术家，毫无艺术家的架式，更没有常见的怪癖，真让我吃惊不已。在其后的接触、交谈、相处中，我更感到李唐教授的平平常常，谦虚和顺了。

　　能达到平常，实在不平常。平常是心道，道在平常。待我读了李唐教授的画作之后，我就确信王安石所说“看似寻常最奇崛，成如容易却艰辛”的真谛了。我从阅读李唐教授的作品中，蓦然感知，他肯定有坚毅的性格，有真诚不懈的美学追求。李唐的平平常常，正是他可贵的独立风格。于平常见沉稳，于平常见厚实，于平常见始终如一，就真的不平常了。

　　其实李唐教授的不平常，既在他的平常之中，更在他的平常之外。李唐教授是一位当代中国佛画艺术家，他的艺术创作，他的艺术成就，既是中国传统佛画艺术的继承和发展，又是他对当代中国佛画艺术的独特建树和新的发展。因此，他的不平常、不平凡，恰恰在他的平常之外，这是理所当然，情所必至的。

　　佛教是外来文化，从印度传入中国，已经两千多年了。自两汉之际传入中国以来，佛教对艺术影响最大的，首推绘画，其次才是雕塑、书法、说唱、戏曲、音乐、舞蹈等等。中国佛画，据载始于三国时期(吴)的曹不兴(亦作曹丕兴、曹弗兴)，他见西域僧人康僧会带来的佛像，将其临摹入画。以他的功力，以他的成就，佛画之名，冠绝当时，史称我国佛画之祖。曹不兴的弟子卫协，继承乃师，擅长佛画，当时被称为画圣。卫协的弟子，便是大名鼎鼎的顾恺之。这位顾虎头，在金陵(今南京)瓦官寺壁，画维摩像，时人须捐钱十万，才能入内一观。从顾恺之，到后来的陆探微、张僧繇、阎立本、吴道子、王维、韩干，几乎都以佛画著名当世，佛画成了他们那个时代绘画艺术的主流。历史上的山水画，那是继佛画之后才兴起的另一主流。至晚唐五代之际，佛画创作，始终遵循佛教仪轨，庄严妙好，敦煌壁画至今为我们留下了极为宝贵的范例。自宋以后，文人画兴起，佛画艺术分为两大流派。一派继承六朝隋唐遗风，不失尺度，另一派则不拘绳墨，以古朴奇谲为尚。达摩祖师像、罗汉像，便成为后一派画家最锺意的题材。这就可见艺术总是不断向前发展的。

　　艺术的表现方法，有画家的心得，有画家的创造，这是画家驰骋艺术想象的天地。西方现代派中，就包含了各种流派，各有其艺术的侧重面。有的重色彩，有的重形体，有的重激情，有的表现运动感，有的则不重形式，而重内心感受，用色快(块)，点线面来表现自我的情感，重的是纯粹的艺术。因此，艺术才有了表现方法的多样性和丰富性。说艺术创作是生活的反应，固无不可，但艺术毕竟是独创性的劳动，只有写别人所未写，用别人所未用的手法，他才能创造出别人所没有创造过的东西。看起来，这是画家的自由，你可知，要达到这样的自由，创作者该经历多少痛苦，甚至经历多少磨难，承担多大的责任啊!

　　读李唐教授的佛画，我深感他在研究传统，继承传统，师法先贤方面，肯定是下过了一番又一番学习的苦功。必然是“十年磨一剑”，朝朝暮暮，冬去春来，临习古今名画，深会佛画心法，待有独到心悟之后，他才创造出了属于李唐本人的独特风格。这些甘苦，是不为外人所知的。他的佛画造型沿续了中国佛教艺术的优秀传统，足证李唐有其艺术的法脉。他那千百根纤细婉转的线条，有顾恺之的春蚕吐丝;他的用笔，细挺流利，摇曳多姿，有李龙眠的线型成熟;他的用墨，高朗华阔，生动有致，尽得赵孟頫、黄公望、沈周、唐寅诸家精髓，他的着色、意境和构图，简洁明快，自然和谐，法备而神完。诚如近人吴昌硕所说：“大胆落笔，细心收拾”、“奔放处离不开法度，精微处仍照顾到气魄”。这样的功力，你不能不感到李唐给了我们一种艺术的悬念。若不能破译这个悬念，你就很难进入高层次的欣赏了。

　　一般人的眼中，可能认为宗教人物的典型和性格，总是比较单一、概念、抽象，甚至是公式化，模式化的。然而，李唐不是。李唐画的是佛，是菩萨，是圣者，是一体三宝。但表现的却是人的精神，人的崇高品质，人的心灵境界。信佛的人能看爱看，不信佛的人也能看也爱看。李唐继承传统，但不追摹古人;李唐遵循传统，却又跨越了传统，有了他独特的发现。他画的是形象，画的是结构，但力透纸背的是他的思想感情，是他所创造的意境。这不是一般人所能达到的，也不是一般人说所能看到的。因为，这到了智能的层次，属于李唐的心灵悟境了。笔、墨、材料、工具、技巧，都可以模仿，而心，不可能被模仿。经云：“心如工画师，能画诸世间。五蕴悉从生，无法而不造。”只有当李唐发现了中国的艺术传统是智慧、是境界、是心灵，他才深知，他学习传统学的是智能、是境界、是心灵的颖悟。他的任何一幅作品，都是他心灵的表达，心灵的再现。只有当李唐发现了传统的秘密，并且把传统的秘密变成了李唐笔下出神入化的真功夫，只有到了这个时候，我们才可以说，李唐继承了传统，李唐已超越了传统，李唐找到了自己，李唐也超越了自己。

　　于是，我想是不是可以这样说，每一个时代都有彼一时代的高峰。曹不兴、卫协，是曹不兴、卫协那个时代的高峰;顾恺之、陆探微，是顾恺之、陆探微那个时代的高峰;阎立本、吴道子、李龙眠、赵孟頫，是阎立本、吴道子、李龙眠、赵孟頫那个时代的高峰;他们都创造了他们的历史，也留下了他们的历史。读李唐教授的佛画艺术后，我们发现，今天已进入了李唐的时代。李唐也创造了自己的历史，李唐已达到了他的时代的高峰。回眸历史，着一座座高峰，才形成了宏大的、绵绵不绝的、一峰连着一峰的中国艺术史的奇观。

　　我们不是只看到奇观。奇观的本质，是发展和创造。有创造，就必然有扬弃。有扬弃，才能有发展。有发展，就必然有的新生命。李唐之所以为李唐，正在于他的创造、他的扬弃、他的发展、他所展示出的新的艺术生命。

　　“君其灵山来，嘉会结胜缘”(赵朴初诗)，我们观赏李唐的佛画，是嘉会，也是胜缘。这胜缘让我们发现了源头正是灵山。李唐的佛画，再现了佛像的共性：庄严、神圣、慈悲、自在、大愿成满、宝光四射、突显崇高美、佛性美。然而，李唐有创造了自己的艺术个性：灵秀而流畅，清丽而妍雅，气韵超逸，工而且细。他创造的线型，既含蓄又有力度，既紧劲又多变化，既挺拔又婀娜飘逸，使画面典雅、纯净、简练、脱俗，有韵律感，有立体感，有细部精致，有唐代塑像之美，能言难言之意。越读越品，越是回味无穷。由于那样的细腻工整，一丝不苟，我有时就猜想，他在运笔之前，是不是已经进入禅定，进入他的悟性世界，与佛菩萨的崇高美融为一体了?当作者进入禅的境界时，他的艺术构思，他的作品也就成为他定慧修持的实录和形象再现了。请看李唐的佛画，塑画威容，端严华备。每一幅无不是慧照天宇，明彻大川，心垂大化，悲悯众生。因而，每一幅佛画，都是作者对佛陀思想、佛法大义的形象诠释，当然也是他对宇宙人生的体察、领悟和观照。对于我们这些读者、观赏者而言，同样是一种指引，把我们引向智慧、解脱和佛性世界的审美认知了。

　　走笔至此，我还不能不补充一句，李唐教授有多方面的艺术造诣，除了佛画创作，亦擅山水、人物、鳞虫、花卉。他的工笔画鸟，尤为简净利落，疏密有致，笔法细劲坚实，工而不板，柔而不媚，简而不俗，设色轻艳典雅，几近五代黄筌之神韵。这是我不能不提及的。

　　最后，我想起诗人余光中有一句名言：“粉丝拥挤甚至尖叫的地方，知音是不会去的。”千百年来，艺术品总是高于欣赏者。这同“形象高于思想”，“形象大于思想”是完全一致的。北宋黄庭坚有诗赞李龙眠的佛画云：“李侯有句不肯吐，淡墨写出无声诗”。他说李公麟心中有诗。心中的诗，不是用诗句写出来，却用他的画，写出来了。写出来的不是画，而是诗。这位“李侯”，我借用过来，不就是李唐先生吗?李唐的画，也是诗，而且是禅诗。又记清人袁牧在《续诗品.神悟》中说到：“鸟啼花落，皆与神通。人不能悟，付之飘风。惟我诗人，众妙扶智。但见性情，不着文字……”李唐的佛画艺术，当然也是“众妙扶智”，也是“但见性情，不着文字”。若能见其性情，则我的这篇序，也可能就是多余的了。

　　谨以此序，敬祝李唐教授《李唐佛教绘画集》的出版，艺林盛世，弘扬佛法，利益众生，清净解脱，读画悟禅，同证菩提。

觉真，2010.04.21于香港禪房，時年七十又八。

The Artistic Vitality of Li Tang

A Preface to A Collection of Buddhist Works of Art by Professor Li Tang

　　Professor Li Tang is currently researcher at the Research Institute of Chinese Arts and Cultural Heritage of Peking University, and Director of the Institute's Research Centre for Buddhist Art and Culture. In 2009, I first met Prof. Li in Hong Kong at a talk and later at the welcoming dinner organised by the Western Monastery of Hong Kong for his visit together with Mr. Ling Haicheng, Editor-in-Chief of the Beijing magazine The Culture of Buddhism. It was a talk so we had to do some talking. As I remember, Prof. Li was the last one to give his talk. There was no voluble bombardment or incessant flow of words from him, nor standardised presentation frameworks such as "firstly…secondly…thirdly…finally", no clichés and no nonsense. Instead, his speech was concise and ordinary. The conciseness revealed a dimension of simplicity and the ordinariness unfolded a modest attitude. I was so amazed by this artist who showed no trace of the usual airs and eccentricities of artists. Later on we had more chances to get to know each other and his qualities of commonplace and his humble and accommodating nature were further revealed to me.

　　To be able to attain a sense of ordinariness is in itself no ordinary journey at all. The ordinary mind is the path, and the path is in the ordinary. Having viewed the paintings of Prof. Li, I have come to be more convinced by the truth as observed by Wang Anshi, the state chancellor of the Song Dynasty, when he said, "The ordinary may seem commonplace, in fact it is the most distinctively special. It may look easy but it is an arduous journey getting there." From reading Li's works, I am suddenly aware of the fortitudinous quality in his character that gives him an inexhaustible energy for the pursuit of aesthetic beauty. Prof. Li's commonplace is a reflection of the valuable uniqueness in him. Out of the ordinary, there is a calming steadiness; there is substance and strength; and there is consistency, all emerging from the ordinary. In fact, it is really extraordinary.

　　The extraordinariness of Prof. Li is found within and beyond his ordinariness. As a Chinese contemporary Buddhist artist, Prof. Li creates his works of art based on the heritage of Chinese traditional Buddhist paintings, making unique contributions and new developments to the art of contemporary Chinese Buddhist paintings. His extraordinary qualities, therefore, lie precisely beyond his ordinariness. This is all very natural and inevitable.

　　Buddhism was a foreign culture introduced to China from India more than 2000 years ago. Buddhist teachings were first transmitted into China during the two Han dynasties (ca. 206 BCE – 220 AD) and since then have influenced on artistic creations, with the art of painting being influenced to the greatest extent, followed by sculpture, calligraphy, shuochang - the genre of narrative singing (speaking-singing), xiqu (opera), music, dance and so on. The first record of Chinese Buddhist paintings was believed to begin in the Three Kingdoms Period (ca. 220-280 AD) when Cao Buxing (also known as Cao Pixing and Cao Fuxing) copied and painted an image of the Buddha from a statue brought by a monk named Kang Senghui from the western regions beyond the Great Wall. In Chinese art history, Cao was considered as the forefather of Chinese Buddhist paintings and his paintings of Buddhist icons were notably the best during his time. The tradition was continued by his disciple Wei Xie, who was respectfully addressed as the Sage of Painting, and in turn by Wei's disciple Gu Kaizhi, the most celebrated name in Chinese art history. Also known as Gu Hutou (Tiger Head), Gu Kaizhi painted a portrait of Vimalakirti on the wall of Waguan Monastery in ancient Jinling (nowadays Nanjing). To view the portrait, people at that time had to pay a sum of 10,000 dollars. Nearly all renowned artists, from Gu Kaizhi to later practitioners such as Lu Tanwei, Zhang Sengyao, Yan Liben, Wu Daozi, Wang Wei and Han Gan, established their names through painting Buddhist themes. Buddhist paintings became the mainstream of the art of painting at that time. The genre of landscape paintings, another mainstream of art, came after Buddhist paintings. Until the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the creation of Buddhist paintings always abided to the strict requirements of Buddhist rituals - dignified presentations with sublime outlook. Some of the most valuable examples can be seen from the murals of the Dunhuang grottoes. After the popularity of literati paintings in the Song Dynasty, Buddhist art was split into two sects: one following the style of precision inherited from the legacy of the Sui and Tang Dynasties and the other unencumbered by rules and characterised by a free spirit of expression, yearning for simple and unsophisticated renderings with a pursuit of the weird and bizarre. The portraits of Bodhidharma and Lohans were among some of the most favourite subject matters for painters belonging to the second sect. Hence, the development of art can be seen as ever progressively forging forward.

　　Artistic expressions are the embodiment of an artist's understanding and creativity of life, offering an arena in which his or her creative imagination can roam free and far. The modernist school of western art embraces a great variety of traditions, each with their own artistic emphasis. Some focus on colours, forms, passions, movements, some less on forms but more on feelings, using colour patches, dots, lines and planes to express their emotions. The emphasis is on the purity of art. Hence, artistic creation has developed in itself a richness and diversity for methods of expression. It is not wrong to say that artistic creation is a reflection of life. However, art is afterall a work of originality. It is only when a work of art is a rendering of a theme that has not been rendered before, and is rendered in such a manner that has not been expressed in such a way before, that a work of art can be considered creative and original work. It seems like a kind of freedom enjoyed by artists. However, do you know how much sufferings, sacrifices, painstaking efforts as well as spiritual responsibilities that the artist needs to undertake in order to have access to such a freedom?

　　Looking at Prof. Li's paintings on Buddhist themes, I have come to a deep understanding that he must have painstakingly exerted a lot of effort in studying and inheriting traditions as well as acquiring the knowledge and skills handed down by forerunning masters. He must have put himself to a dedicated discipline that echoes the spirit of the saying: "Taking 10 years to sharpen a sword". Day in, day out, and season after season, he must have immersed himself in studying the masterpieces of all times and understanding the essence of Buddhist paintings until he has come to some unique and profound realization for the emergence of a unique style that truly belongs to Li Tang. The joys and sorrows encountered on one's path cannot be known to others. Throughout Li's paintings of Buddhist icons, there is a continuation of the finest tradition of Chinese Buddhist art, showing the lineages from which his art has been developed. The thousands of fine and subtle lines in his paintings remind us of Gu Kaizhi's famous rendering of lines described to be "like the gossamer threads of spring silkworms". His brush strokes are delicately precise and smooth with swaying charms, carrying the sophistication as shown in the lines of Li Longmian. His use of ink is permeated with a sense of noble candidness and liveliness, acquiring the quintessence of great masters such as Zhao Mengfu, Huang Gongwang, Shen Zhou and Tang Yin. The colour renderings, conceived sentiments and moods as well as compositions of Li's paintings have together combined to convey a pithy, lucid and lively expression in natural harmony with techniques well-executed and spirits displayed to their fullest. Wu Changshuo, artist and poet of the late 19th century, once remarked on the art of painting: "Starting with bold strokes and finishing in fine details" and "The unrepressed vitality lies within the limit of methods and techniques with vibrant spirits being well taken care of even in the finest details". Based on such competence and understanding, you cannot help but feel the artistic suspense created by Li. If you cannot decipher this suspense, it will be difficult for you to get onto a higher level of art appreciation.

　　Normally people may think that the typical representation and character of religious figures are always monotonic, conceptual and abstract, even stereotyped and modeled. However, Li Tang's works are not like that. He subject of paintings are buddhas, bodhisattvas and holy persons, the triple gems in one body. What is presented in his paintings are things which belong to humanity, the mind, noble qualities and spiritual states. Buddhists are able to appreciate these paintings and view them with fondness, and so are non-Buddhists. Li Tang inherits from traditions but without merely imitating preceding masters. He follows traditions but transcends traditions with his own distinctive discoveries. On the surface of his paintings we see images and compositions, but emerging from the drawing papers are his thoughts and emotions, the sentiments and moods he created. These are not the states that can be reached nor seen by ordinary people since these states are related to the level of wisdom and understanding. They belong to the spiritual realization within the mind of Li Tang. Pens, inks, materials, tools and skills can all be imitated, yet the mind cannot be copied. According to the Buddhist sutras, "The mind is like an artist who is able to paint the worlds. The five aggregates are all born thence and there is nothing the mind doesn't make." It is only when Li Tang discovers that Chinese art tradition is all about wisdom, states and the mind, that he fully realises that what he learns from tradition is actually a realisation of the wisdom, creative concept and the mind contained therein. Each of his paintings is an expression and a reconstruction of his mind. Only when Li Tang has discovered the secrets embedded within traditions and is able to transform these traditional secrets into his superb works of art, then can we say that Li Tang is an inheritor of traditions who has also transcended traditions. He has found himself while at the same time he has also transcended himself.

　　For this reason, I wonder if I can make a remark that every era is characterised by its own summit of representative figures. The era at the time of Cao Buxing and Wei Xie has been designated with them as its summit figures. The period of Gu Kaizhi and Lu Tanwei has been earmarked as the time of these two great artists. Yan Liben, Wu Daozi, Li Longmian and Zhao Mengfu have also built the summit of their time respectively. They have created their own history and left their marks in history. Studying the Buddhist art of Prof. Li Tang, we have come to a discovery that he has created an era of Li Tang. Having done so, Li has also reached the summit of his time. Looking back at history, the series of these summits have formed a great spectacle of Chinese art history comprising magnificent, endless peaks one after another.

　　It is not only the spectacle that we see. We see the intrinsic quality of the spectacle which is development and creativity. When there is creativity, there is bound to be sublation. With sublation, there is development, and with development, there is bound to be new life. The fact that Li Tang is being Li Tang is built exactly on his creativity, his sublation and development and his way of disclosing a new life of art.

　　"Come to the Hill of the Vultures, and let this auspicious occasion produce the most accomplishing and victorious condition", extracted and translated from a poem by Zhao Puchu. The chance of us viewing the Buddhist paintings of Li Tang is itself an auspicious occasion, as well as an accomplishing condition, which enables us to trace its source to the Hill of the Vultures where the Buddha gave his teachings. The Buddhist paintings of Li Tang reconstruct the common characteristics of Buddhist images: dignified, holy, compassionate, comfortable and at ease, having great wishes accomplished and fulfilled, radiating brilliance, highlighting the beauty of the sublime and the buddha-nature. Yet again, Li Tang further creates his own artistic personality that can be described as delicately graceful and smooth, refreshingly beautiful, unconventional artistic flair and skillfully rendered with fine details. His line renderings are reserved but full of force; compact yet bursting with variation; stiff but then graceful and elegant, creating in the pictures a sense of classical gentility, purity, simplicity and non-secularity, reminiscent of the aesthetics beauty of Tang sculpture, which are rhythmic, three-dimensional and refined with exquisite detail. He is able to give forms to shapes that are hard to be constructed and give words to thoughts that are hard to be articulated. The more we read the more we taste, and more food for thought we can gather. In fact his paintings are so meticulously and neatly finished that I sometimes wonder if he, before picking up his painting brush, is already in a state of meditative concentration and tranquility (Sanskrit: dhyana), and into his world of realisation where he merges with the sublime beauty of buddhas and bodhisattvas? When an artist has entered into a state of meditation with his creative idea, his works become a record of his practice of meditation as well as a reconstruction of images. Please take a look. The Buddhist paintings of Li Tang are "cast and painted with a majestic countenance and fully dignified." Each painting shows how the universe can be lightened up by the rays of wisdom; how luminous wisdom can pervade thoroughly in thousand-fold worlds; how the teachings of the Buddha spread wide and far with great compassion for all sentient beings. Therefore, each painting is the artist's visual interpretation of the thinking of the Buddha and doctrines of Buddhism. Of course it is also based on his experience, understanding and meditative insights on life and the universe. To us the viewers, they are equivalent to a kind of guidance that leads us in the direction of attaining wisdom, liberation and aesthetics knowledge on the world of the buddha-nature.

　　Having written up to here, I have to add one more line – Prof. Li has a diversity of artistic attainments that run alongside his Buddhist paintings. He is also very good at landscapes, portraits, fish and insects, flowers and plants. His fine-brush flower-and-bird paintings are especially well executed in simplicity and purity with fine layouts. His brush strokes, looking delicate, powerful, firm and solid, are refined but not stiff, gentle but not flattering, and simple but not conventional. His choice of colours is light, splendid and graceful, recalling the essence of that of Huang Chuan of the Five Dynasties Period. This is what I must not forget to mention.

　　Finally, I remember a saying by the contemporary poet Yu Guangzhong, "a place that is crowded with fans and their screams, intimate friends of great understanding will not visit." For hundreds and thousands of years, works of art have always stayed high and above their admirers. This is totally in line with

　　statements such as "images are above ideas" or "images are greater than ideas". Huang Tingjian of the Northern Song Dynasty expressed his appreciation for the Buddhist paintings of Li Longmian in one of his poems, "Lord Li has lines of verses but he would not say them out; his voiceless poetry is painted out in light inks." Huang referred to the poems in Li's mind. Poems in the mind are not articulated using verses, but written out using his art of painting. What is written out is not really a painting, it is poetry. If I borrow the idea of this "Lord Li", isn't he no other than Mr Li Tang? The paintings of Li Tang are also poetry. In fact they are Zen poetry. Furthermore, Yuan Mei, a poet of the Qing Dynasty, wrote in a literary critique on poetry entitled A Continuation of Shi Pin – A Spiritual Realization, "The phenomena of birds singing and blossoms falling are all in themselves quite supernatural events. Yet humankind is unable to realise it and owe it to the effects of the four seasons. Only poets, with wisdom well supported by numerous wonders of life, are able to show merely the essence of nature and temperament without attachment to words and characters." Without doubt, the Buddhist paintings of Li Tang are also manifestations of the "wisdom well supported by numerous wonders of life' and the ability of "merely showing the essence of nature and temperament without attachment to words and characters". If anyone can see the essence of his nature and temperament, this preface may be simply superfluous in that regard.

　　With this preface, I would like to congratulate Prof. Li Tang on the publishing of A Collection of Buddhist Works of Art by Professor Li Tang. Being a grand occasion in the world of art, the publishing of this book also helps propagate the Buddhist teachings for the benefits of all sentient beings, liberating us and offering all of us a valuable chance for attaining realisation and enlightenment. Thank you very much!

Juezhen, Written in a meditation room Hong Kong, 21st April 2010, At the age of 78.

作者：释觉真