1
　　In 1996, Chao Hai painted a very large painting, a man stiffly lying on his back.  The perspective effect is very strong, however, it still does not strictly comply with scientific principles of perspective, as the man's body and head does not seem small according to the requirement of perspective, apparently this is inspired by the intelligence of Buddha mold in ancient precipices.  When appreciating this painting, my intuitive impression is Qian Ling, the huge mausoleum in the suburbs of Xi'an with Li Zhi and Wu Zetian, two emperors in Tang Dynasty, buried inside.  That is a magnificent image of a woman lying on her back on the land of Qinchuan.
　　Chao Hai named his painting Nirvana.
　　Nirvana is not a Buddha, but a peasant.  In Chao Hai's heart, the peasant is a Buddha, the most respectable.  A peasant is born on the land, plows the land, eats on the land, and finally rests in the land.  Therefore, for the land, the peasant is eternal, perpetual, and everlasting.
　　Chao Hai has told a story to the student in Central Academy of Fine Arts.
　　A man in his home town died.  He was invited by the family to paint a portrait of the deceased.  The deceased had been encoffined, so Chao Hai could only straddle the coffin and bend to portray him.  This used to be a very familiar face since his childhood, always wearing the solemn and calm expression, inspiring awes of the children in the village, but now he silently lied in the cold coffin.  Chao Hai found out that time was so ruthless, turning into an awe-inspiring face into the symbol of misery.  He watched intently this lifeless face, carefully reading every wrinkle, like reading a thick book of history, reading the land lined with ravines in home town, reading all the divinity and Buddhistic personality of a deceased peasant.  He was moved into tears, as he read the fates of himself, his father and brothers, his ancestors, even all the human being in this face.
　　Thus, I understand why he paints Nirvana, why he makes the silently resting peasant's image look like a Buddha, why he lets the deceased body radiating strong rays of light ......
　　Chao Hai likes to paint the head of a peasant on a pieces of paper at the length of 8.75 feet.  This size is probably close to the size of the large Buddha's head with Li Shimin as the model in the rock cave in Bin County.  You may regard them as large Buddha's head, or the stile without any words, or a half earth cliff, even an earth lump, which are all the reading effects expected by Chao Hai.  He always creates large paintings, simply wishing every audience would, like himself, perceive some of the Buddistic personality in Chinese peasants, be somewhat shaken and sympathize.
　　Buddha says, "If I don't go to the Hell, who would go to the Hell?"  He carries on all the misery in the world.
　　Chinese peasants carry on the misery of the entire Chinese history.  Peasants suffer the most, therefore, they are the Buddhas.
　　Which artist has ever presented the Buddistic personality of peasant in such bold brushstrokes?
　　This is the crucial point to understand Chao Hai's works.  His works have the feelings of great compassion, the imagery of great disaster, and the mood of great gratitude which could be scarcely perceived in secular Chinese painters, but could be perceived from Buddistic sculptures and frescos before Tang Dynasty especially before Bei Dynasty, and also could be perceived from the paintings of religious spirits in western countries.  Great disaster, great compassion, great gratitude, Chao Hai's paintings enable us to see the Buddistic personality of laboring people to purify our hearts.
　　2
　　Many of Chao Hai's works are nameless, just labeled as "Work - No. X of the Series in the Year of X".  However, this doesn't necessarily mean that his works don't have any conception.
  Viewing his chronological table of creation, we may find that, before 1990s, most of his works did have titles, and many awarded works also had titles.  Approximately from 1988, he allocated some works, which had ambiguous significance but with definite scenes, into the series of Returning to Home Town in Dream lasting up till now.  Entering 1990s, most of his works have been titled according to the year of creation.
　　The evolution of painting's title reveals Chao Hai's track of gradual transformation from Realism to Expressionism through following different teachers.
　　Chao Hai was educated in the traditional Chinese painting department of Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts, receiving the relatively systematic and strict training in Realism.  Xi'an, where he lives, is also the place of strategic importance in local realistic paintings.  Some masters among national realistic ink figure painters, such as Liu Wenxi, Wang Youzheng, Guo Quanzhong and etc, all live in Xi'an, and also are famous for depicting peasants.  As Chao Hai grew up in such an environment, it is both natural and right for him to start from Realism.
　　However, we could not neglect Shi Lu, the spiritual leader in the painting circle in Xi'an.  As early as 1973 when Chao Hai was 18 years old, he taught himself painting while getting engaged in agriculture at home, then he saw Shi Lu's original work in Exhibition of Criticizing and Denouncing Black Paintings in XI'an, and he was shocked, and self-narrated that this was quite influential to him.  Shi Lu was on the yellow soil famous for its seclusion and conservation.  However, compared with other avant-garde ideologies in other areas in China, someone may tease this sort of local Expressionism with peasant as the subject to be the present form of seclusion and conservation.  Whereas, for the painters in Shanxi Province, turning from Realism to Expressionism means the enormous transformation in experiencing methods and experiencing levels.
　　If Realism depicts the sensibility about life itself, then Expressionism presents the perception of living experiences.  This decides that Expressionism would inevitably put more emphasis on the subject, and experiencing level would also enter into life from living.  Individual artist's sensitivity for life and unique perception of existence would break through the sensible presentation of live.  Certainly, all these depend on the awakening of artist's awareness of life.
　　The reason why local Realism in Northwest China arose in 1990s is just the result of northwestern painters' awakening of life awareness.  This tardy arrival of awakening is somewhat related with the initiation of ideological trend of Chinese Humanism, but not timely enough to be influenced by the most modern and dissolving theories.  I believe, they stood in a quite appropriate humanistic background, on one side, there were ink painters with strong trend in Expressionism, then Li Shinan carried on the spirit.  After Li Shinan went to the South, Chao Hai became eminent.  The three of them have maintained the development of contemporary Chinese ink art's Expressionism.  However the individualities and talents are all different from each other, Shi Lu is weird and wanton, with overwhelming talents showing unintentionally in his brushstrokes; Li Shinan is unconventional and carefree with academic nature full of the paper; however, Chao hai is an original local person from the central Shanxi plain, eccentric but still honest and sincere, unconventional but ambiguous.  "All people are my fellowmen; all things on earth are my companions."  The famous sentence in Ximing written by Zhang Zai, a famous scholar in Guan Philosophy, seems to make a perfect remark for Chao Hai's paintings.
　　The alteration from Realism to Expressionism seems not to be a change happening only to Chao Hai.  In October of 1999, in Shanxi Contemporary Chinese Painting Exhibition - Exploration Exhibition of Middle-aged and Young Artists' Styles held in China National Museum of Fine Arts in Beijing, some figure painters among those 15 middle-aged and young artist, including Chao Hai, Guo Quanzhong, Wang yanlin, Zhang Lizhu, Xing Qingren, almost all achieved the transformation from Realism to Expressionism through their own exploring styles, which eventually caused intensive attention in the critic circle in Bejing and was called a group debut of local Expressionism in Northwest China.
　　This is a significant phenomenon, which especially happened in the hinterland of Chinese civilization in the form of a group, then fortunately avoided the superhuman consciousness of pitying one's misery and being angry with one's inability in the initiative ideological trend in 1980s, also avoided the curious psychology for the new art form to watch the old one, what's more important, it avoided the hostile atmosphere arising consequently from desperate agitation.  In those painter's works of local Expressionism in Northwest China, we generally see the gracious compassion and considerate understanding.  Painter's living experiences not just point at the negative side of humanity or the irrationality of life, nor go their own ways to let off the trash feelings of their personal psychology.  Whereas, their life awareness of all the lives on this yellow land is obviously more conscious than the painters of the elder generation, hence their works are not satisfied to depict a cultural scene, and their portrait of figures is not satisfied with those regional characteristics in an anthropological sense either.  They expect to see through the origin of people's awareness of existence and life on the yellow land in the more macroscopical background of ideology and culture.
　　 Chao Hai possesses all the common traits of this painter's group, yet his perception and recognition of human's existence seem to be simpler and more straightforward than other painters, therefore his life awareness is more desolate and bitter.  His sensitivity of misery and the solemn presentation of misery endow moving inspiration to his paintings.
　　Life has all kinds of miseries.  Birth, aging, disease and death are called four true meanings in Buddhism.  And the misery of being a peasant is probably the endless laboring.  The themes of Chao Hai's paintings seem to focus on one word, fatigue.  I have never seen another artist devoting so much painstaking effort to express the heaviness of fatigue in life.  Among all the figures in his works, some dispiritedly sits on the ground, stretching the legs, laying both hands forward; someone's legs separate, both hands drooping down naturally, his head looking up into the sky; someone wipes the tears in eyes with clothes; someone widely opens the mouth to breathe heavily ......  These are various poses when people are really exhausted.  The male and female wheat guests under his paintbrush are the symbol of the laboring lives in this world.  Thos female wheat guests who stand together to lean on each other and fall asleep are unforgettable.  And as for the woman's face in No. 4 of Ink Works created in 1990, only a really fatigued person would have this kind of expression.  Comparatively speaking, lying is a relief of fatigue, and eternal lying is an eternal relief.  Thus, Chao Hai gives the pose of lying the grandest and most poetic depiction.  He has painted two similar paintings, one is Work - No. 1 of 1991 Series, and the other is Work - No. 4 of 1992 Series.  In the former painting, there are two people lying shoulder to shoulder, with several cattle standing or lying beside them; in the latter painting, there are still two people lying should to should, with a group of white small specters beside them.  The situation of the former painting is that those two people are asleep with cattle; the situation of the latter painting is that those two people are resting in peace, and small specters carrying the lamp of long life are leading the way.  No matter they are asleep or resting in peace, both are a relief to fatigue.  There is also a painting named Laid Aside, presenting 4 old men lying.  Judging from the expressions on their faces, they are very glad and satisfied with the position of being laid aside.  Therefore, death is not terrible, if only one could really rest in peace, what is dreaded is to be reincarnated in the eternal cycle of birth and death.  In Reincarnation created in 1996, those two extremely exhausted shadows really make people have this kind of fear.  In Work - No. 1 of 1990 Series, the napping peasant dreams that both he and the mule get rid of the heavy harness of laboring and fly over the clouds.  Watching his soundly sleeping back, how could we not help being sympathetic?
　　Chao Hai always portrays laborers, including animals which are all laboring animals, such as cattle, donkey, horse, and etc.  He contemplates among the fates of these laboring animals and people.  What is The Soul of The Land?  What stands Between Sky and Earth?  Chao Hai's contemplation is extensive and heavy, an atmosphere of great sympathy shrouds all of his works.  Chao Hai exceeds his elder generation's attitude of simply eulogizing labor and laborers, nor like realism-denouncing writers trying to reveal the sociological contents of laborer's fate.  No, he doesn't have those non- metaphysical purposes, his contemplation is metaphysical, he thinks this is the nature of our world, and labor is the predestination our world has to accept.  All the living things silently undertaking this predestination, no matter human, horse, cattle, donkey, Chao Hai is full of sacred awe for them.
　　In Chao Hai's living experiences, he must have deeply impressed memories of fatigue.  To express this kind of experience, he would surely transform from Realism to Expressionism, otherwise, he couldn't express the heaviness in life awareness.
　　Therefore, the language of his brushstrokes has to be sluggish and heavy.
　　3
　　Chao Hai's ways of watching and viewing are drifting between Realism and Expressionism.  On one hand, the figures in his paintings absolutely come from real life, many scenes and situations are a snatch from life; on the other hand, all those figures from real life become deformed and exaggerated according to his metaphysical contemplation to produce a visual impact of alienation.
　　Chao Hai's realistic achievement completely comes to light in the deformation and exaggeration of his figures.  No matter how deformed or exaggerated his figures are, there is no anatomical mistake, and I believe this is the reason why the audience could accept his paintings though they look "unfamiliar" but still reasonable.  Under Chao Hai's paintbrush, the figures, poses and expressions are realistic, even every muscle and every tendon are realistic, meanwhile Chao Hai makes them all seem to be very expressive.  Those unique poses and expressions with profound living basis but branded with Chao Hai's strong sign only obtain artistic expression through being illuminated by the rays of Chao Hai's life awareness.  As for those muscles and tendons complying with anatomy evidently make people feel the shivering and impotence out of mental control when extremely exhausted.
　　I notice the good sense of sculpture in Chao Hai's paintings.  I assume, besides the orthodox academic education, those magnificent cultural relics in the ancient land of central Shanxi plain would surely have exerted a more profound, long-standing and imperceptible influence on Chao Hai's art feelings.  Terracotta warriors and horses in Qinshihuang's mausoleum, stone inscriptions in mausoleums of Han and Tang Dynasties, statues on the cliff in Tang Dynasty, those ingenious and natural flavors and integrity are what Chao Hai wants to express through ink molds.  In some sense, he molds in ink, molding many Buddha statues of laborers standing between the sky and the earth.  They remind me of ancient Arhat statues.  If we neglect those looks and limbs, there are only many simple, intact and insensate stones and soil heaps.
　　Thereby, I don't quite agree with others to compare his brushstroke with the feeling of cotton, though we could deduce the philosophies of overcoming hard things with soft things and etc from this.  In my point of view, the feeling of soil is far more appropriate than that of cotton.  Chao Hai's ink is mixed with lots of ochre, when this kind of ink containing particles of stone powder accumulates on Xuan paper, texture would appear one layer upon another like soil.  I have said, Chao Hai transforms ancient people's "ink game", and one important physical element is that the ink of "ink game" is very refined and smooth, would float fluently like cloud and smoke according to the quantity of water on Xuan paper, thus it is very suitable to express the purity and calm arising from correct realization in Tao and Zen, and Chao Hai's ink is quite coarse and unsmooth, like yellow soil accumulated on Loess Plateau for tens of thousands of years.
　　To utilize this kind of coarse and unsmooth ink, one must be very good at using water.  Chao Hai surely has devoted much energy on this, having experienced countless failures.  By now, he still hasn't arrived in the realm of complete freedom, however between the two extremes of dreamy illusion and earthy solidity, he could create all kinds of ink effects, dry or wet, thick or thin, all at his pleasure, which is already quite difficult.  Doubtlessly, in Chinese ink figure painting, he exploringly expands the expression of large ink painting.
　　We say that Chao Hai's feelings of sketch and sculpture are both very good, even say that he is molding in ink, but this doesn't mean he really "translates" sketch or sculpture onto Xuan paper in ink.  No, Chao Hai is still painting Chinese painting of large freehand brushwork, therefore he would inevitably pay attention to deft brushwork, inevitably used brush method to command ink method and water method, inevitably express emptiness and solidity through different brush methods.  In one word, he uses deft brushwork to write out the images of his figures one brushstroke after another.  As he mainly creates in the accumulate-ink method, every layer of ink is kept clearly, enabling us to see more distinctively the speed and strength of his brushstrokes, to taste the emotional connotation of his brushwork.  In the symposium of Chao Hai's Painting Exhibition, someone said that he walked out of the theory of brushwork's center, someone said that he canceled lines to make them large boneless paintings.  I think all those opinions may misunderstand Chao Hai's painting language.  Frankly speaking, Chao Hai is too meticulous about brushwork, Chao Hai's every brushstroke has its own "bone".  In the ancient aesthetic conception of "wind and bone", bone has the implication of physics, in painting it could be deduced as validity in structure.  "Deft brushwork" is doubly significant in Chao Hai's paintings, both the validity of anatomy in figures and the writing element in significance of brushstroke.  Just for this, Chao Hai is extremely conscientious to put down any brushstroke.  According to his familiar acquaintances, sometimes Chao Hai would only paint one brushstroke after several hours.
　　Finally, I want to point out the relationship between Chao Hai's brushwork with those landscape painters of Chang'an school including Zhao Wangyun, Shi Lu, Fang Jizhong and etc.  On the inheritance of brushwork, he may have studied personally under those masters, and successfully transforms the landscape brushwork of Chang'an school into figure painting and makes some progress, this is the important reason why the cultural atmosphere of Chao Hai's works is always indigenous, with rich flavors of the central Shanxi plain and yellow soil.  In language, he lets us find a regional commonness.
　　As human being lives between the sky and the earth, human being is most miserable one, therefore he has Buddha and Jesus Christ.  Chao Hai regards miserable person as Buddha, and portrays those living Buddhas in the world with great gratitude, great sympathy and great awe.  After appreciating Chao Hai's paintings, at least I would welcome the fate more composedly, as laboring is the nature of our lives.

作者：Wang,Luxiang