The unique and profound style and the impressive themes of Chao Hai's painting art are swiftly recognized and appreciated by scholars, artists and common people from home and abroad.  He is the only person to be possibly called people's artist whom I have been admiring for the last several decades.
　　For an official, if he could be called the people's son or public servant, that is the highest honour; for a person dedicated to art, if he could be called the people's artist, that is also the highest honour.  The world originally belongs to the people, only a person for the people is the most sublime person.  In the earliest ancient Chinese history, a person also regarded it as an honour to serve the people, and took it as the highest goal.  In Li Ji - No. 9 Li Yun, it says that "when the perfect order prevails, the world is like a home shared by all."  Later, the situation changed, the privileged appeared, then the people attached to the privileged also appeared, "when the perfect order declines, the world is like independent homes."  The world then became the world belonging to only a few people, then everything was for the monarch, and even the slaves' lives also belonged to the monarch.  At that time, Yang Zhu suggested the concept of being for myself, everything was for myself, even the theory that "it only takes a hair to benefit the world without any reward, nobody would do it" became an advanced theory.  As everybody did everything only for himself, then the monarch's world was destroyed, consequently the monarch lost his privileges.  Afterwards, somebody added that, "if one did not do for oneself, then he would stand condemned by God".  Certainly, the theory of being only for myself was strongly opposed and condemned by the ruling class, who advocated the Confucian theories of being for the public and the state, however, the public and the state belonged to the monarch, so that being for the public and the state was for the monarch.  Therefore, advanced ideologists put forward the theory of being for myself produced great influence.  Whereas, the ministers dared no to carelessly mention being for myself, and only became talkative about entertaining myself when painting, which was also actually "being for myself".
　　Now it's different, the world is restored to be the people's world, "everybody in the world is for the public".  Therefore, painting is also for the public.  As a matter of fact, how many artists are really for the people?  Zheng Banqiao of Qing Dynasty wrote on one of his paintings that, "I paint orchid, bamboo and stone to express regards to the laboring people, not to entertain the privileged in the world."  Fu Baoshi said that, he was an artist for the people, then somebody says he is the people's artist.  As for whether Zheng Banqiao is a people's artist or not, we would not discuss it now, and we would discuss the present artists.
　　There are two kinds of people's artists, one is symbolic, and the other is narrative.  For instance, some artists are recognized by the government, to be awarded the title of people's artist and the certificate stamped by the government.  This is symbolic, nobody could deny that.  The narrative artist is really creating for the people to eulogize the people, to shout loudly for the people, and the people admit him to be their own artist, and he is affirmatively the people's artist, however, without the certificates.  Both of them are difficulty, the former needs recognition from the government, therefore they have to deal with the government officials, doing things according to the policies made by the government, otherwise they wouldn't issue certificates and titles of people's artist to you.  The latter must really and whole-heartedly create for the people, otherwise the people would not acknowledge you; the former artists' emotions are mainly attached to the □□□□□□□(seven words are omitted here), the latter artists' emotions are mainly attached to the people, mostly focused on the laboring people.
　　I assume that Chao Hai belongs to the latter kind.  Not any institute has issued a title or certificate of people's artist to him, and he is actually an artist for the people, and also one of the artists of highest quality.  From his birth until now, his emotion always stands for the laboring people.  All the while, he is crying out for the laboring people, and also creating for them.  In his paintings, there are all images of laboring people, without any image of the privileged.
　　In 2000, I saw Chao Hai's works in Jiangsu Art Museum (he was invited to hold his solo exhibition in Jiangsu Art Museum).  Under his paintbrush, there are simple and honest old peasants on the yellow soil in Shanxi Province, laboring women having experienced vicissitudes, and those the laboring people, who are breeding him, and breeding us, seem lifelike in Chao Hai's paintings.  I was deeply touched to almost tears, when I saw those simple but laboring images, with anguished and begging expressions in their eyes, overly dried lips, big joints as a result of excessive laboring.  Chao Hai tells me about the present situation of female wheat reaper portrayed in his paintings, who always labor all the year round and earn a little money less than half a meal of an official or a rich man, but they still labor.  Some female reapers are pregnant, some have just given birth to their children and hurried to reap wheat without much rest.  When they finish reaping wheat here, they continue to reap in another place.  Everyday, they have sores in waist and leg, some would even collapse in the wheat fields.  However, to afford their children's education expenses and to make a living, they must exert the utmost strength to reap for others, therefore, someone calls them "wheat guests", and the women among "wheat guests" are called "female wheat guests".
　　In Chao Hai's paintings, though the male peasants are all laborers, they are all of indomitable spirits, like the peaks towering on Loess Plateau, boundless, indistinct, solemn and stirring, by that, we may find out that Chao Hai has deep feelings for them.  Chao Hai says that, those peasants live on the yellow soil one generation after another, asking for nothing, silently working, selflessly contributing.  Occasionally, they could eat a sufficient meal, and they would be so satisfied even to play suona horn, sing some folk songs or Shanxi Opera.  Yet, they could scarcely eat a decent meal; they sew and mend the clothes again and again; they just wrap their bleeding hands with rags and continue to labor; their feet dehisce and bleed, they don't care; not being able to afford the education expenses, the children stay at home to help the adults to labor.  Just like this, they multiply one generation after another, never blaming anybody or anything.  What is simplicity and honesty?  You could find the visual explanation in Chao Hai's paintings.  Those laborers are just the spine supporting the Chinese nation, and they are the present situation of China.  Under Chao Hai's paintbrush, those suffering people on the yellow soil are so great and sublime, and before them, any hero at all times and in all over the world would become insignificant and impotent.  Certainly, this is the result of Chao Hai's emotions, and also his artistic accomplishment.
　　Chao Hai tells me about another group of female wheat guests, whose appearance is sun-burnt and seemingly strong but actually weak in physique.  To survive, they go to lots of places to reap wheat, many female wheat guests faint along the road, and that is the only rest they could get.  When recovering consciousness, they would hurriedly plunge into wheat reaping.  Life is so hard ......
　　It's a long time ago when I could still see this kind of paintings.  In present painting circle, everywhere we could see beautiful girls, most of them are naked; images of the privileged and so-called great people ...  How many artists are still painting old peasants?  I ask Chao Hai, "Have you ever been praised?  Have you ever been an official?"  The answer is negative.  "Some artists paint portraits for the privileged and sing the praises for them all their lives, why don't you paint their portraits and sing the praises for them?  Like that, you would be an official and get benefits."  "I couldn't successfully portray them.  I was born in the countryside, grew up on the yellow soil, I am familiar with the old peasants and old cattle, I could only paint my familiar contents."
　　Situated in the light, you could only see the bright side; situated outside the light, you could not see the bright side.  Only benefiting from the privileged, someones would eulogize the privileged, or eulogize them to gain benefits from them.  On the contrary, staying in the suffocation, you need to struggle, scream, and break out.  A sincere person would paint all the truth in his heart, but could not paint the non-existed hypocrisy in the feelings.  Chao Hai, the people breed you, the yellow soil cultivates you, you could only paint, you could only use your paintbrush to mold their images, to eulogize them, to shout loudly for them.  If you couldn't endure the solitude, you want to be an official, to benefit from the privileged, then you may change your original intention, to sing the praises of them, to paint the brilliant images of them.  I don't think you would do that.  Don't many people portray the privileged, sometimes even one privileged generation after another, to get praised, to become officials, to obtain benefits, and they also become famous?  Aren't they even called the people's artists?  Chao Hai, you're destined to be unable to get the title of "symbolic" people's artist, whereas, you ought to the people's artistacknowledged by the people, you would still eulogize the people, mold images for the laboring people, and shout loudly for the working people.  Those rich and privileged people live in nice storied buildings and elegant villas, ride limos, go everywhere with a large retinue, even possess many beautiful women, waiting for them, using all their ingenuity to win favor and being jealous of rivals.  There are even more "scholars" singing the praises noisily, however the privileged would not feel bored.  So you need not to eulogize them.  Even if you participate in the team of eulogizing scholars, you could not seem to be conspicuous, as you lack in the talent of flattering.  Whereas, the old peasants, female wheat guests on the yellow soil and all the laboring people need you.  They could not offer you a position of official or any other benefits, but they could comfort your heart.  (Above were written in Xishan of Nanjing Normal University in the Spring Festival in 2003.)
　　Somebody asks me, "Chao Hai doesn't portray great people, even not the famous people (such as singer, star, actor/actress, and etc), and would this go against the spreading of his works and his fame?"  My answer is, "What Chao Hai wants is art, is the conscience and noble quality, as for the spreading of his works and his fame, they are not the key points in his mind."  However, when browsing through the art history, I find that not a single artist became outstanding for painting some president's portrait.  Picasso, Van Gogh and etc only portrayed boatman, old peasant, doctor, whore, dancing girl, waitress and etc to become world famous artists.  Certainly, the artists experimenting with portraits of great people and famous people are exceptional, as they only consider the art effects, instead of ingratiating with great people and famous people's intentions to mold their great images, therefore they could not get benefits from the privileged either.  Those expecting to benefit don't' have art in their heart, but could only ingratiate them with the privileged.  Chao Hai doesn't understand the privileged without spending a long time to get along with them, so that he could not paint it even if he wants to.  He originated from the Loess Plateau, staying with them for a long period, knowing them, being familiar with them, his feelings are attached to them, and thus it's easy for him to paint well.
　　When somebody comments that there are a kind of great sorrow, a spirit of great sublimity and a spirit of great China in Chao Hai's works, Chao Hai answers, "This is something deep inside my heart and a soul fortune.  I was locally born and bred in Xi'an of Western China, where magnificent ancient culture and the yellow soil and ravine underneath are as heavy as China's 5000-year history.  When you hear the struggling, sad and desolate roaring of Shanxi Opera and the grieved and bitter song sung by bachelors, when you see the children in depressed mountainous area desiring to study, when you see the faces of elders and villagers as toilful and agonized as the ravines in highland, when you see the female wheat guests fainting onto the ground as a result of overwork as they go to many places to reap wheat in summer harvest, when you see a face like crude iron when you paint a portrait of deceased fellow-villager, can you still hold your nerve and you paintbrush steady?  China has the greatest mountain ranges, rivers and Loess Plateau, has diligent, kind-hearted and toilful laborers as lenient and restrained as cattle one generation after another.  They are the huge culture resources endowed to us by the heaven, breeding, nurturing and catalyzing the birth of solemn and stirring art."  How sincere and precise!  This is just the root of his art success.
　　The laboring people may have coarse images, however, they disregard their personal gain or loss, silently contribute, actually they are noblemen, great men, both respectable and lovely.  But if there are no considerable living basis and unaffected feelings, it is absolutely impossible to mold the images.  Chao Hai's paintbrush just creates their sublime, sorrowful, sacred and great images.
　　The traditional brushstroke to paint the beauties and the privileged is not suitable to paint the images of laboring people.  Chao Hai also has an original creation.  According to the characteristics of yellow soil and old peasants, he creates a method to transform mutually between line and surface.  There is color inside the ink, and ink inside the color; there is abundance inside simplicity, and uniformity inside abundance.
　　He says himself, "There is no line but the structure, and you could feel solidity inside vagueness, convulsion inside implicity, carefree recklessness under control, and grandeur and sublimity inside coarseness."
　　Painters in all times pursue simplicity and vigor, some of them may get it, however nobody could be as simple and vigorous as Chai Hai, who has culminated it.  Traditional Chinese painting is good at using lines, and the painter's achievement is mainly reflected by the lines.  How did the line of traditional Chinese painting evolve and change?  The ancients have discussed it, mostly using calligraphy for reference, and calligraphy originated from the nature.  Many terms of calligraphy used to indicate some natural phenomena.  Calligraphy is spread by teachers, and who is the earliest teacher?  Is it Wang Xizhi?  Wang Xizhi's teacher is Mrs. Wei, and Mrs. Wei's teacher is Zhong Yao, who is Zhong Yao's teacher?  And who is the teacher of Zhong Yao's teacher?  It is still the nature.  Chao Hai's brushstroke directly learns from the nature.  He does not only learn from the nature, but also originates from the nature.  In the Loess Plateau it rarely rains, then the yellow soil always split open with fume arising.  There is a smoky and fumy atmosphere and also a feeling of dryness in Chao Hai's brushstrokes.  He transforms the clear lines into a surface, changing from plainness to vagueness, however he also gather the surface into lines (structure), and you could still perceive the lines inside the ambiguous smoky shape.  You would never find this kind of brushstroke in paintings in all times.  Maybe this is Chao Hai's invention, actually, the achievements of natural environment in Shanxi and Gansu provinces would surely be unfolded under his paintbrush.  If he doesn't intentionally learn from the nature, then this may have already existed in his sub-conscience, as the painters from south of the Changjiang River could not create this kind of line and surface.
　　Chao Hai was born in a village, and surely he could frequently see the soil dug out.  Soil is colorful, black within yellow, red within black, mingled together, just like his brushstrokes with color inside ink and ink inside color.  Maybe this is the inspiration from the soil, maybe soil functions in his sub-conscience.  Chao Hai's paintings are just the emergence of the spirit of Loess Plateau.
　　The most difficult part is the profundity and implicity of Chao Hai's brushstrokes.  I have been considering whether this is his innate talent or not, then why nobody else could achieve that?  Certainly, Chao Hai has practiced martial art from childhood to be quite good at it.  I also practiced a little martial art when I was a child, and I used to be able to practice some sorts of Chinese boxing, but it is nothing to be compared with Chao Hai.  Chao Hai learned martial art from his father, and practiced really hard since he was only a very small child.  He tells me that, at that time his father used a belt to bind him and hung him on a tree to practice his waist.  His father made knots on a beef tendon softened by water, and after it dried up, he had to use his nails to untangle them, and for many times his finger toes bleed.  The most interesting part is that he took two winnowing pans under his arms and jumped from a cliff to float with the buoyant force produced by the winnowing pans.  Many people got hurt from jumping, many dared not to jump off the cliff, but he jumped off a very high cliff and floated to the ground like flying.  He said, to practice martial art, "hand, eye, body, method and pace" are crucial, and intelligence, spirit, comprehension and perception are also important.  The self-cultivation of breathing, heart and spirit could be called the distillation of natural essence and breeding of righteousness.  But it is more important to cultivate courage and virtue.  If one has no courage, no matter how high his martial art's level is, it's still useless.  For instance, one sees something unfair happening, but he dares not to help or insist on the righteousness, having martial art or not having it is the same.  For someone good at martial art without virtue, if he does evil deeds, then it harms the society more devastatingly, then he'd better have no martial art.  Chao Hai has practiced martial art both in bitterly cold winter and sultry summer for several decades, and he has got perseverance and composedness inside.  The expansion of martial art purifies the life.  Moreover, people practicing martial art pay more attention to affection, advocating simplicity, hospitality, aloofness and implicity.  Most people having very high-level martial art possess sublime personalities and feelings of righteousness (you may see some contrary examples in fictions or films which are mostly invented by writers, actually there are rarely any true examples).  I suppose, Chao Hai would not paint to flatter or eulogize the privileged, but to present the old peasant without any privileges, which must be related with his virtues obtained since childhood.  The profundity and implicity of his brushstrokes may also be related to his practicing martial art since childhood.  I used to practice martial art when I was a child, though I am not very good at it, when I see Chao Hai demonstrate a little for me, I immediately find out that he is really good at it.  Profundity and implicity, maybe this is just the resources of his wonderful brushstrokes.
　　There are also many other aspects worth to be elaborated about Chao Hai's painting art.  Maybe someone has already elaborated on them.  In one word, in present times, Chao Hai's art is the most core-shaking art, the most unique art.  It has the profundity of Han Dynasty, the strength of Tang Dynasty, powerful, elegant, spectacular and really incomparable.  It's the crystallization of the spirits of Han and Tang Dynasties in Northwest China, and also the typical model of present art.
　　Someone says, there are arts of broad road and small path.  Art of small path is just pleasant; art of broad road is moving and touching.  Chao Hais's paintings belong to the art of broad road.
　　Maybe someone would say, "Chao Hai paints not only old peasants and cattle, but also cranes and foxes which he is also very good at, how could you explain this?"  Yes, Chao Hai has painted numerous old peasants and cattle, and occasionally would paint some cranes and foxes, which means that he has deep feelings for old peasants, and he has the quality like an old cattle to only contribute but never ask for reward.  However, he is after all not an ordinary peasant, he is an artist and university professor growing up in a village, he appreciates the masterpieces at all times and in all over the world, he has an elegant and refined side with intelligence, therefore, cranes and foxes also seem to be so graceful and vivid in his paintings.  An intellectual may love old peasants, but not equaling an old peasant.  Otherwise, who would serve the laboring people?
　　Chao Hai is an honest man, creating honest paintings.  He never wants to gain reputation through the privileged, however, his efforts finally reward him, as his art has become quite influential at home and abroad.  For many times, he participated in national art exhibitions, and after holding his solo exhibition in China National Museum of Fine Arts, art museums in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Chengdu, Hong Kong and etc successively invited him to hold solo exhibitions, and collected his works as an important part of their museums' collections.  Besides, many important art museums would exhibit his works as important collections every now and then.  Many theorists, university presidents, art museums' directors and etc at home and abroad give very high evaluation of his works.  Chao Hai is one of the most successful painters in contemporary China.
　　Chao Hai is now in the prime of his life, honest and kind, regarding art as his own life with a very promising prospect.  So long as I saw Chao Hai's paintings, I could not forget about it for many years.  I love his profound and steady brushstrokes, I love his vigorous and flourishing colors, but even more, I love his personality and spirit to cry out for the laboring people.  Chao Hai, you are the son of working people, you are the son of the yellow soil, you should never change you original intention, you ought to continue to shout loudly for the laboring people.  If you couldn't endure the solitude any more, please come to me for help instead of ingratiating yourself with the privileged.  Your paintbrush should not serve the privileged.  Let's make an agreement here, as long as I could write, I would never eulogize the privileged, never submit to any power to serve it, never sway even with 1,000,000 atom bombs pointing to my head.  And your paintbrush also would never yield to the privileged, never sway to benefit from portraying the privileged.  Go, go, go inside the laboring people, wipe their tears, if they already have no tears, then you wipe their sweat, and give them a cup of water.  Again, go, go, go inside their hearts, stir the strings there, let them sing a song, and you would sing, dance and run with them.  Please don't stop your paintbrush, continue to paint the sublimity of the laboring people, paint the colorful picture of the times, also paint your own future.  Meanwhile, my pen would not rest either, to write a brilliant page in your art history.
　　Finished on May 6, 2004 in the apartment in Nanjing Normal University
　　Revised in July, 2004 in Lehu New Building in Shanghai University
 

作者：Chen,Chuanxi