序 言
我跟王开云先生相遇相识乃冥冥之中的一种巧合。2010年初夏，在江苏靖江，无意中走进一家以营生为目的的小画廊。一幅中国书法的草书作品令我眼睛一亮（见图一），作者对中国传统书法韵味的感觉，对草书结体、线条、节奏、整体的把握，令我顿生“不信今时无古贤”肃然起敬之感。在墙角边放着一张画(见图二)，画面所显现出来的画家的绘画意识之高，令我对其仰止。我问及此书画作者，答 : “我 ”。面对这位时龄50岁，比我年小十一岁的憨厚结实的农村汉子王开云，我投去了刮目相看的眼光。
我跟王开云先生进行了探讨性的攀谈，逐又请来善作慈善事业的企业家马中亮先生给与经济上的帮助，解决其后顾之忧，劝其全身心地进行书画研究与创作。为了找到答案，我继而又专程去其家乡做了一些必要的调查研究工作。
王开云先生1962年出生在中国安徽省枞阳县白梅乡东山村杨庄队，处在距长江不远处的大山里，在中国，山区相对来说是比较封闭落后的。少年时，他在家乡读完初中，帮助父母干些农活。15岁背井离乡外出打工以图生计，他下过矿井，修过马路，当过搬运工。在此同时，王开云先生省吃俭用，时而买些廉价的质量较差的笔墨纸砚，打工之余练练书画，在无师的情况下琢磨自学。他有时也去书店读些美术理论方面的书籍，去美术馆看画展。王开云携全家定居在江苏省靖江市，开画廊买卖商品画谋生，虽然条件好了些，但这也是近几年的事。
从他的生平经历来看：出生在落后贫穷封闭的山区农村；初中文化程度；无师从；没有系统受过专业的美术教育；干重活苦活；用于画画写字的时间不足等，都足以说明，他要成为一名相对成熟的画家的内外在条件是不具备的。他虽然也经常注意看一些与绘画有关的理论书籍，但在与他的攀谈中所听到的也都是些社会流俗的陈词滥调，他也把当下一些以个人主义为基础的所谓创新派，前卫派的教条挂在嘴边，把故作的个性化的标新立异当真理供奉。但他和那些抱着功利主义创作动机并瞎编滥造理论的画家们不同，因为文化水平所限，他对天、地、人的关系；人类文明发展史；各宗教的自然观；人类审美创造过程的基础理论；中西方思想意识形态发展史；中西方美术史等的知识严重缺乏，仅是鹦鹉学舌而已，所以在他的绘画作品里并没发现那些斑斑劣迹的东西。从上述两个方面，我都没能找到解析王开云绘画缘由的切入点。王开云画崇山峻岭、河流大川、雪域冰山，广袤平原、浩瀚大海、蔚蓝天空、朝晖夕阳、烟笼锁雾、都能表现出造物主的伟大与圣洁，找到自然时空与自己心灵意象的契合点。让观者在赏画时，感到自己深爱着大自然的同时又似乎被另外一种爱包裹着。只有钦佩!我的结论是:此人是 “天才”! 王开云的画作让我冲动得就想去亲它吻它，那是圣洁无尘的天堂，没有人类文明带来的任何瑕疵，它似乎让我看到了上帝造物之初的景象，我坚信这绝非凡人之所为，我突然在脑海里闪出两个字: “神授 ”!
我从唯物主义的角度所进行的工作无解，我只能尝试着从精神层面上去挖掘。我想起前不久，我曾为介绍王开云的画时，写过一篇题为«大山之子»的文章，我在文中写道:“王开云是大山抱大的，一般画家提倡写生，不过是蜻蜓点水，走马观花……”。我要解开王开云绘画之迷，我就必须寻找到他与其他绘画大师的本质区别的形成原因。我又要证明我发现的这个区别在客观上、逻辑上是成立的 。但我现在想起来却后悔得直跺脚，我当时已经站在了打开谜底的大门前，却没再往里跨一步。试问:大山将他抱大他会不爱这片土地，不爱这里的大山大河，不爱这里的一草一木吗?。在人世间，这份情感是至高无上的，这应该就是王开云绘画成就的基石!
我找到了打开谜底大门的钥匙，兴奋不已！我便按照这一思路向王开云提问。我问:“小时候，你眼中的世界是怎样的?”答:“大山大河，很大很美，外面的世界我是不知道的。我来到这个世界，睁开眼睛所看到的山河，手掌摸到的山壁，脚底踩着的碎石，耳里听到的风声以及身体感受到的春夏秋冬的变化，尤其是冰天雪地的那些景象，都储存在我幼小的记忆里，这就是我小时候全部的世界。”我问:“你15岁后离开家乡，你为什么不画外面的东西?”答:“不美，没有美的激动。”我问:“你是否偏爱家乡的环境:”答:“是的，很偏，好像有个灵魂在招我学画，我要把我眼里心里的家乡的景致画出来，我一动笔就亢奋，我很爱我的家乡，那里的空气是甜的，水是甜的，山外有山，无穷无尽，翻越一座又一座，让人遐想是通达天堂的，我的画笔也会不知不觉地画到那边去。只要踏上家乡的土地，我就会感觉到大山在招呼我，流泉在为我欢唱。我也会跟它们说说心里话。”我问的最后一个问题是:“你爱这些大山大河，你感觉得到它们爱你吗?”
王开云回答这个问题，回答得实在精彩，他说:“不仅我感觉得到，家乡的父老乡亲都感觉得到，我们祖祖辈辈就是享受着这些山山水水无私的给予，才在这块土地上生存下来的。我的画，外边的人看不懂，而我的老乡都看得懂。”显而易见，问题的答案找到了。王开云深深地爱着大自然，大自然反馈给了王开云启迪与智慧，他无意中从大自然中获得了神授，引导他懂得了画画不是画画，自然也不是人类理性反观的自然，是通过画画把上帝的爱传递给人间，自然就要画得真实，人们在观画爱画的同时也能体会得到被爱的幸福。这也是我最初看到王开云画作时，情感油然而生的原故。王开云绘画成就有几点比较重要的，观者可注意一下。
一 ，中国在近现代也出现了多位中国画大师，由于他们忠实于中国笔墨的研究与使用，他们的成就都被定格在中国区域内，深奥的中国笔墨文化反而在与世界文化沟通上成了难以逾越的障碍。近现代也有不少学习西画的中国人，凭借他们的个人才气和集体研究成果，在技法的掌控上，有很大的长进，但在体现西方文化和精神内涵上，却格格不入。王开云的画笔从表现其家乡的山山水水着手，一直联想到天堂的山山水水，为把人与自然的爱与被爱传递给这个世界上的每一个人，他从自然界获取灵感，抛弃了中国笔墨文化的区域禁锢，也审视了对人类文明发展影响较大的，尤其是欧洲文艺复兴以来的近百位西方绘画大师的技法，觉得他们在表现他们自己的各门各派各主义的画面效果时，都有独到之处，但表达的也就是他们个人的理解、理性、感觉与理念。他们把对象作为反观的对象，进行类化、抽象化、概念化、非具象化……，以致达到与他们个人的感觉中的意识一致的效果。王开云发现这各门各派各主义就社会学角度来说，具有文艺复兴，推动社会自由民主化进程的伟大意义。但是，各门各派各主义的本身却是莫衷一是的，他们的成就都只能代表他们自己的一个片面，王开云觉得一个人的理性在真理面前是很苍白的，哪怕将他们所有的技法都囊括进来，也无法满足他心中对彼岸畅想的一种情感表达。他必须自创新法!
二 ，谈到欧洲，就不得不谈到耶稣教。我没记错的话，圣经里说:上帝六日工程造出自然界万物，在上帝爱的世界里，万物没有高低贵贱之分，一切都是上帝所造，上帝平等地爱它们，爱它们一切。按照这个提示，要表达好真正真实的自然界，采用最丰富的一切法，方为可能。王开云无师，看来是无师可拜，中西方所有的画家们所用的技法在表达物象与意象方面，都取得了比较多的经验，但要表达出自然界的爱与被爱，那是远远不够的(圣画中，表达人爱与被爱是很多的)。几十年来，他从“自然神圣法则”中感受到了无限丰富的“一切法”。他独自反复琢磨，成功地实现了这个目标。用绘画方式完成了自己对彼岸的畅想，为上帝与人之间搭建起了一座爱的桥梁，做了一件凡人无法企及的事。王开云的绘画技法跟古今中外的任何画派的技法都不同，故他的绘画作品具有不可复制性，每一幅画都只是孤品。
三 ，基督教教义里，似乎主要是强调人爱人，人爱小动物、植被及一切生命体。基督教对自然界的环保观念也是为了保护自然界的有机物而立的，这当然是神圣的。但是，我们细想一下，上帝把造好的结构完美的自然界交给我们人类管理，使徒们不仅要倡导人们爱自然界中的生命体，还同样应该重视爱护无机物的自然界本身，她是母体，是一切生命体赖以生存的条件，她是上帝所造，上帝同样爱她，王开云先生给了我们一个很重要的启迪和教材，我觉得中西方各基督教会也应该重视起这个问题来。基督教绘画艺术，人们称之为“圣画”。但大多是人物画居多，这是因为教会的主要圣工作还是以“爱人”为轴心，圣经里的故事以人物故事为多，尤其是欧洲文艺复兴以后强调人性解放的缘故。王开云的绘画是圣洁的自然景致，是属灵艺术，是否可认定为“圣画”类别上的一个补充，我在这里不敢枉下定义，应由神学专家们来评说。
四 ，王开云不是基督徒，也不是泛神论者。但每一位艺术家所创作的作品本质上都是其内在精神世界的外化，在激情支配下，艺术家的性格、修养、理想、感受、情感甚至信仰都会很真实的显示出来。从王开云绘画作品里可以看到他是崇拜自然，承认神造自然的。这实际上就是证明了他的内心跟上帝是相通的，否则他不可能在画面里显现得出“自然神性”。自然的本质是“善”的精神,唯人的心中有“崇高而圣洁的爱”才能感觉得到。而王开云对家乡山山水水的这份爱以及他对山外的联想在前面的采访中已溢于言表，清澈透亮的无尘境界在他的画面里表达得是最为充分的。
五 ，写实(具象)画家往往会象画标本一样画画；写意画家往往会在里面注意到一些气息表达自己的意象；抽象画家是将客观对象反观成自己的主观对象，用自己老道的手法处理画面；非具象画家则是用艺术符号处理出具有视觉审美效果的图案。王开云画画时，为了表达好他所神往的天、他所神往的地及天地间的一切，他会自由地采用上述的其中任何一种或多种绘画手段。好评者说他的画是西画，是中西结合，是这一门的，那一派的，是写意的，是抽象的，是写实的。其实，上帝无门无派，王开云也是追求无门无派的。我曾向某观众解释过，王开云只想把自己心中的伊甸园画出来，他从不去考虑画种与门派，王开云的绘画是献给全人类的。
结 束 语
德国哲学家黑格尔在《逻辑学》的结尾，阐释绝对精神的逻辑有这样话 :“最丰富的东西是最具体的和最主观的，二者把自己收回到最单纯的深处的东西，是最强有力的和最囊括一切的。最高、最锋锐的顶峰是纯粹的人格，它唯一地通过那成为自己的本性的绝对辩证法，既把一切都包摄在自身之内，又因为它使自身成为最自由的，－－仍保持着单纯性，这个单纯性是最初的直接性和普遍性。” 我用 这位出生在十八世纪的伟大的德国哲学家美学家的这段话来作为结束语，是想告慰这位伟人，尽管他的“绝对精神”思想在当时被同时代的叔本华等哲学家猛力抨击过，然而，在两百多年后却被人以绘画的形式证实了。请大家记住他，他的名字叫:王开云。
周生力
2013年11月9日写第二稿于上海
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Foreword
It was somewhere in a coincidence that I got acquainted with Mr. Wang Kai-yun. In early summer 2010, I went to Jingjiang, a city of Jiangsu province, as I had an appointment with my friend, Mr. Ma Zhong-liang, chairman of the board of directors of Nanshan Metallurgy Machine Manufacture Co. Ltd. One day at leisure time, I strolled along the street, and unintentionally got into a small gallery transacting low-price commodity paintings. It was owned by Mr. Wang Kai-yun who was running it for making a living for his family life. I glanced over those so-so painting works. Suddenly, one of the cursive writings of Chinese calligraphy caught my eyes (see Picture 1). I was deeply touched by the writer’s feeling of the classic aroma of the Chinese calligraphy and by the cursive writing’s structure, line, rhythm and entirety that he well kept to. I couldn’t help saying, “Never believe there is no longer a gifted scholar like the ancient one today!”
“Who did it?” I asked.
“I did it,” he replied.
I am over sixty now. I began to practise calligraphy at the age of four under the direction of my strict father. I have been making research of Chinese calligraphy and paintings all my life. I had once said, “In today’s China, there is no calligrapher better than that in the ancient time because there is no interior and exterior condition available for learning calligraphy.” However, that day I said to Mr. Wang Kai-yun, who was eleven years younger than I, “I wanted to retrieve what I had once said.” When I told him that I wanted to exchange views about the calligraphy study with him, he said to me that he was very poor when he was in his childhood, and had no money to buy enough food, let alone to buy paper. He could only practise writing on the ground using his figure. After growing up, he went outside to look for a job for making a living himself and used the same way to practise writing after work. Sometimes, he used the money saved from skipping over one meal to buy writing brushes, ink-sticks, paper and ink-stones for practice. As all Chinese calligraphy learners know that, when using different writing brush, ink-stick, paper and ink-stone, or in different posture while writing, the characters written out are different; more strictly, when one imitating different forefather’s copybook, the material and tool to be used and the way to hold the writing brush will be different either. I have tried almost all kinds of paper and writing brushes, and consumed countless paper in the past decades, and thoroughly studied all the calligraphy history and theory, however, at that moment, all I could do was to admire him other than feeling humble. My conclusion was: This man was a talent! In this way, I could get myself out of the situation. I was about to turn to leave when I negated this conclusion because I was attracted by a painting against the corner edge (see picture 2). The artistic concept displayed in the painting was so impressive that I couldn’t help appreciating it.
“Who painted this?” I immediately asked again.
“I painted.” He replied.
My God! Even if it were a talent who painted it, it would be still a person who did it. The art work before my eyes made me feel like kissing it. It was an impeccable heaven. I could see no flaws brought by human civilization in it. What I saw was just a beautiful scene at the beginning of the God creation. I firmly believed that it was absolutely not an ordinary person who could do it. Suddenly, two words came into my mind: God-Awarded!
After that, I spent two years making analysis of Mr. Wang Kai Yuan’s works. I should mention hereto that it was my good friend, Mr. Ma Zhong-liang who provided him with financial support, and ensured him an essential condition to dedicate himself to his art works.
I first had many talks with Wang Kai Yun, and then went to his hometown searching for some first-hand information about him. Wang Kai Yun was born in 1962 in Yangzhuang Team, Dongshan Village, Baimei-township, Congyang County, Anhui province, China, located in a mountain area not far from The Yangtze River. In China, the mountain area was then relatively backward and isolated. During his teenage, after finishing his middle school education, he helped his parents do farm work. When he was fifteen years old, he left his hometown to look for a job for making a living himself. He worked as a coal miner, or a road repairer, or a porter, living a very simple life. In his spare time, he never forgot his self-study and exercises of calligraphy and painting under no direction of any teacher or any teacher’s instruction. He used the money saved in his daily life to buy all sorts of low–price and low-quality writing brushes, ink-sticks, paper and ink-stones. Sometimes, he went to the bookstore to read books about artistic theory; sometimes, he went to visit art shows in the galleries.
Later Wang Kai-yun settled down with his family in the city of Jingjiang, Jiangsu province. He improved his art career a lot by running a small gallery transacting commodity paintings. Of course, all about it has just happened in the latest years. In terms of his life experience, as he was born in a poor, backward and reclusive mountain village, with only middle school education background, no direction of any art teacher, no systematic art training, always doing heavy work for making a living, with little time to practise painting and writing, it’s hard for him to become a relatively matured artist. Although he often read books related to art theory, however, when talking with him, I could often hear a lot about social lousy clichés. Certainly, he also talked about current doctrines of those so-called innovative and avant-garde schools in virtue of individualism, and worshipped something mock, individual and unconventional as the truth. But he was different from those artists blindly making and abusing theory with creation motive of utilitarianism. As he had limited education, he did not have much knowledge about the relationship between the heaven, earth and human, nor did he know much about the human progress, the viewpoints of the nature from different religions, the basic theory in the progress of human aesthetic creation, the ideological development of China and the West, and the art history, etc. He talked about it only like a parrot. Therefore, there were no unhealthy and bad behaved stories found in his works. From these two perspectives, I could not find out what it was for him to start with his paintings. Wang Kai-yun liked to paint high mountains and lofty hills, the rivers and torrents, the snow areas and snow-covered mountains, the extensive plains and vast seas, the blue sky, the morning sunrise and the dusk sunset, as well as the smoke-shrouded and foggy views. He could express the greatness and holiness of the Creator in all these paintings, and could find the interacting point between the natural time and space and the soul image of his own. So when visitors came to appreciate his paintings, they could always feel themselves falling in deep love with the nature while being embraced by the love at the same time.
I couldn’t explain Wang’s works from perspective of materialism. So I could only make analysis from psychological side. I once wrote an article titled “Son of the Mountains” to introduce his paintings. In the article, I wrote that it was the mountains that raised Wang Kai-yun. Usually, when painters go out sketching, they performed like a tourist, or like a dragonfly on the water surface……” If I wanted to unfold the mystery of Wang’s paintings, I should find out what made his paintings essentially differ from other great artists’. I believed that, objectively speaking, the difference that I found was right. However, when I think about it now, I feel regretted again. At that time, I had already stood outside the door to find out the mystery of his paintings, but stepped no further. Now that he was raised and grew up in the mountains, how couldn’t he love that plot of land? love the mountains and rivers there? love every tree, every bush there?! In the world, this passion is the supreme of all. It must be the cornerstone of all Wang’s painting achievements!
I’ve eventually found the key to open the door of his mystery. I am so excited.
“What did the world look like in your eyes when you were a little kid?” I asked Wang Kai-yun again.
“Big mountains and rivers. They were very very big, and very very beautiful! But I didn’t know anything about the outside the world. When I came to the world, and opened my eyes, all I could see were mountains and rivers; all I could touch by my hands were steep cliff walls; all I could step on were gravestones beneath my feet; all I could hear with my ears were winds, all I could feel in my body were seasoning changes, especially those snowing sceneries, all memorized in my little mind. That was the whole world of mine when I was a little kid.”
“Why didn’t you paint things about the outside world after you left hometown?” I asked.
“I didn’t see anything more beautiful or more toughing.” He answered.
“Do you feel you have a personal preference to your hometown? I asked.
“Yes, very. I feel as if there were a soul calling me to paint. I want to paint out all views appearing in my eyes and minds. I will be always very excited when I get into painting. I love my hometown. The air there is sweet; the water is sweet too. There are mountains beyond mountains for you to climb, one after another, leading you to an imagination all the way through to the Heaven, and then getting you into painting beyond your control. As long as I get on the land of my hometown, I will feel as if the mountains were calling me, and the creaks were singing for me, and I would speak my mind to them too.”
“You love the mountains and rivers. Do you feel they love you?” I asked my last question.
“Not only I feel, but all my hometown people feel as well. We generations from generations have enjoyed the selfless love given by the mountains and rivers, as we were all born there, and have been living on this plot of land. My hometown people can all understand my paintings, but people outside cannot.” He did give me an excellent answer.
Obviously, I have finally got the answer. Wang Kai-yun loves the nature wholeheartedly, and the nature rewards him with enlightenment and wisdoms. Without awareness, he has got Charismatic instruction from the Nature, which leads him to know that painting is not just painting itself, nature is not the nature that human rationally look at either. It is a kind of love transmitted from the God through paintings. Therefore, it must be painted truly. When appreciating true paintings, people feel happy to be loved. That is why I got greatly touched when I first saw his paintings.
Here I’d like to draw visitors’ attention to some key points in Wang’s painting achievements as follows:
1. In the latest modern China, there have emerged a number of Chinese painting masters. As they are loyal to the study and application of the Chinese brush-and-ink painting, their achievements are rated and confined in China only, mainly due to difficult communication between the deep Chinese traditional painting culture and the world culture. Recently, there are quite a few Chinese artists learning western painting. Technically, they have made great progress by virtue of their individual talent and collective research results, but in expression of the western culture and spiritual connotation, they are far from enough. Wang started his paintings with mountains and rivers in his hometown, leading him to his imaginations of mountains and rivers in the Heaven. He wanted to transmit the loving between the nature and human to everyone in the world through his paintings. Wang has got an inspiration from the nature, and abandoned the area confinement of the Chinese brush-and-ink culture. He has also reviewed the techniques of hundreds of western painting masters who had great impact on human civilization, especially those since the Renaissance. He felt that all these masters did have their own unique features when they did their paintings representing various schools or doctrines. However, what the masters expressed in their paintings was only their personal understandings, rationalities, feelings and ideas. They treated the objects as what they looked at, classified them, and made them abstract or conceptual, or unsubstantial so as to make them agree with what they personally sensed, and then they would feel satisfied. Wang found, from social point of view, that each school or doctrine did have great significance to the renaissance and to the development of social democracy. But actually different school or different doctrine itself did not agree with each other. Therefore, their achievements would be weak and pale in front of the truth as they only represented one-sidedness and individual rationality. He felt that, even if he had absorbed all their techniques to paint his paintings, the paintings still couldn’t express his inner-heart imagination of the ideal realm. These are the unique ideas of Mr. Wang’s.
2. Talking about Europe, we can’t but talk about Christianity. I still remember what is said in the Holly Bible: the God created everything in the natural world within six days. In the God-loving world, there is no distinction between the superior and the inferior, the rich and the poor. As all are created by the God, he loves them equally, and loves everything of theirs. So only by using the most abundant “sarva-dharma” (ultimate nature of everything) can it be possible to express the real natural world. Wang has no teacher, and seems no teacher to follow. Both Chinese and western artists get experience in application of techniques to express natural objects and images, but far from enough to express the love for the nature and by the nature (in holly paintings, we could see quite a lot about it). In decades, Wang has experienced the infinitely abundant “sarva-dharma” from holy nature rules. Having had repeated studies by himself, he has successfully attained the goal, and accomplished his free rein to imagination of his ideal realm by his way of painting. He has established a bridge of love between the God and human, a kind of thing beyond an ordinary person who can do. As Wang’s techniques of painting defer from those used by any artistic schools, whether in ancient time or today, whether in China or in the West, his paintings can never be duplicated. Each is unique.
3. As I know, the Christine doctrine put its stress on the love between human beings, between human and animals, between human and vegetation, and between all creatures. The idea of environment protection has been set for protecting natural organic matters by Christine. Certainly，it is sacred. However, let us think about it in detail. As the God sent a well-configured natural world to human for management, all apostles must attach great importance to protecting inorganic substance – the natural world itself because it is all creatures to live on. As she is created by the God, the God loves her too. Wang’s painting gave us a very good enlightenment and teaching material. I think that both Chinese Christine churches and the Western Christine churches’ shall take it into a good consideration. The Christians’ paintings are called holy paintings, of which, more are figure paintings because most ecclesiastic works are centered on human, and in the holy bible, many stories are about human beings, especially after the Europe Renaissance, the emancipation of humanity has been more stressed. But Wang’s paintings mostly show holy natural scenes. I am not sure whether they can be defined as a supplement to the kind of holy paintings. It’s better to get them to theologians for their comments.
4. Wang Kai-yun is not a Christian, neither is he a pantheist. However, each art work created by an artist expresses his interior and spiritual world. Governed by his passion, the artist’s personality, accomplishment, ideal, experience, affection, even belief, are all displayed. From Wang’s works of art, we can see that he worships the nature, and acknowledges the God who created the nature. This actually proves that his inner-heart is linked with the God. Otherwise, it is impossible for him to demonstrate the divinity of the nature in his paintings. The essence of the nature is the spirit of goodness. One who has lofty and holy love in his heart can feel it. As Wang Kai-yun so loves his hometown that he has finally created these brilliant and holy paintings of a supreme realm.
5. Realistic (figurative) artists usually do their work like painting specimen, for example, freehand brush-work painters do heir work by thinking of some atmosphere to express his own image. Conceptual artists regard the objective subject as subjective object, and deal with paintings using his skilful techniques; while non-figurative artists usually use art symbols to deal with paintings with visual aesthetic effect. When Wang draws pictures, he freely uses the above one or more painting means to express the earth, the heaven and all existing on the earth and heaven that he has been always longing for. Some critics made their comments, saying that his paintings belong to western paintings, or to a kind of a mixture of Chinese painting with the western painting, or belong to this school or that school, seemly freehand sketch，abstract, or realistic. In fact, God doesn’t have any school. Wang must be the one who seeks for no school. I once explained to someone, what Wang wanted was just to express the Edie garden in his mind, never thinking of any sorts of paintings or schools. Wang’s paintings are for the whole mankind.
Conclusion: the German philosopher Hegel elaborated the logicality of the “absolute spirit” at the end of his book on The Logic, saying that: “The richest thing is the most specific and most subjective. What is retrieved into the simplest depth by the above two is the most powerful and capable of including everything. The highest peak is the pure character. Only through absolute dialectics, one forms its own nature, not only including everything in itself, but also making itself free from everything, while still keeping its simplicity, and this simplicity is the primitive directness and universality.” Now I’d like to use what the great philosopher and aesthetician in the eighteenth century said as my conclusion. I want to say to this great man that even if his “absolute spirit” ideology had been heavily criticized by Schopenhauer and other philosophers in the same era, however, more than two hundred years later, it has been proved by an artist through his paintings. His name is Wang Kai-yun. Let us all remember him.
Zhou Sheng-li
In Shanghai
November 30, 2012
（本序言使用的英文字体是Bookman Old Style）
