We are graduates majoring in Chinese painting, and we are going to hold an art exhibition when we graduate. Now interview on TV, want to interview the manuscript! What is the content?

The continuous high temperature for dozens of days has added a bit of impetuousness to the hot summer days. Having the honor to interview Zhang Weiping, a professor at China Academy of Fine Arts, was like an awakening. Many questions about Chinese painting seem clear in my mind, but my heart is clear this summer. The interview manuscript is now compiled into a book for readers.

Zhang Yuting (hereinafter referred to as reporter): Many contemporary theorists advocate "personality expression" and basic skills training. Will this basic learning method contradict the expression of personality? If not, what is the connection between them?

Zhang Weiping (hereinafter referred to as Zhang): My experience is that young painters should learn to compare vertically, not just horizontally. The former can make you understand your own shortcomings when comparing with the classics, while the latter often makes you arrogant when comparing with contemporary people. So to lay a good foundation, you will do this for the rest of your life. Our own painting career should be considered in stages. In the theory of painting, the growth of China painters can be divided into three stages: first, he has a little knowledge of the temperament of pen and ink; Second, the rules are rough, and third, God knows little. Each stage is basically ten years, and it took thirty years to talk about the change of painting style. If we follow these steps when studying, we can make our artistic road go solid. Of course, the present is different from the past. If we think that we are in an era rich in information technology and have certain advantages, we can shorten the study time appropriately, but the premise is to follow these steps step by step, otherwise it is absolutely impossible. Every painter is a living body, and the characteristic of life is that he doesn't like being bound. If you put a bird in a cage, it likes to jump around. As a painter, the same is true, but "frankness" has a premise, that is, "quietness is brightness, brightness is brightness", and brightness is frankness. This is the thought of Neo-Confucianism. What is "empty"? I ching said, "nothing is empty, and no desire is quiet." If you can really be quiet and clear-minded, it is no problem to be spontaneous again. Most people nowadays are spontaneous and utilitarian at the same time. This spontaneous nature with utilitarian heart can't show your nature, otherwise the whole person will look small and naive. So why can't our painters do it spontaneously when their self-cultivation is better and the secular dust is less?

Reporter: You talked about the cultivation of mind. Why is it so important?

I have always pursued the same idea, that is, the trees should be ancient, the mountains should be deep, the water should be clear, the streams should be circuitous, and the final picture should be "clean". So, you see, my understanding of beauty is clearly expressed in the painting, without ambiguity, confusion and filth, and there will be no vague aesthetic images and pen and ink. This is my attitude towards the natural beauty of things and reflects my nature. I know how to draw, and I will never fiddle with my brush strokes. I hope I can clearly put my aesthetic ideas out. I may not know much about some places, but I haven't cultivated myself yet, and I will slowly repair them in the future. However, I am not afraid to directly release my inner life password and things related to nature. Even though I still have some dissatisfaction, I still hope that I will keep working hard in this direction.

Reporter: How do you understand the "purity" of Chinese painting? In addition, how to define China painters and what are their standards?

Zhang: In today's era of advocating "innovation", it's hard to say whether you are a painter in China, because western painting techniques are infiltrating into China's paintings. Judging from the picture, the proportion of Chinese and western techniques has crossed the line, and no one dares to draw a conclusion. As a result, as long as you can brush and draw on rice paper, it is called "Chinese painting". This practice of not emphasizing the interest of pen and ink reduces the height and quality of Chinese painting. It's really easy to tell: if your mind depends on pen and ink, you are definitely not a painter in China. Now some people think that Chinese painting is difficult to identify, but it is not. We can ask people with innovative spirit whether they can change into pen and ink style after seeing a small stone. Is he writing with pen and ink? It is certain that people's thinking depends on language. For example, we see a beautiful little girl in the street. Her beautiful image is transformed into many adjectives such as "beautiful and generous" and "bright eyes and white teeth" in our minds, and your inner feelings are expressed through the concept of words. If you can't read, you can only be as reluctant as a baby. No one can know what you want to express, and you can't raise your concept to a high level. For example, an oil painter goes out to paint. In his view, the world is made up of various colors. If he does not establish his own thinking language from this angle, he is not a real oil painter. For China painters, pen and ink are the foothold and starting point of his thinking language. Chinese painting is mainly aimed at pen and ink.

Reporter: Among the basic techniques, you particularly emphasize the importance of "sketching". As far as I know, it is only the first level of hooking, rubbing, dyeing and pointing. Why is it so important?

Zhang: How should the beauty of stone in life be shown in the picture? This needs a process, first of all, it will involve the problem of sketch. What should I do when I want to sketch? There is an "alternating method" in the outline: alternating size, alternating density and alternating reality. So where is it sparse and where is it dense? This needs to see whether it fits with the vivid and natural physical state of the object, and it needs to constantly think about the details and adjust the size. At this time, if you think hard yourself, you must go back to the classics to find some successful styles and see how people outline and create a dense relationship. With these, we can go back to our lives and observe the real things, so that we can deepen our understanding and handle all kinds of relationships well. This is a vivid embodiment of the predecessors' incisive painting theory that "the rules are exhausted and the changes are born" When you have exhausted the rules of painting, then the change can be a real change.

Reporter: Some people say that in landscape painting, Song painting is "realistic" and Yuan painting is "freehand". Therefore, most contemporary painting circles admire the styles of famous artists in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. But you do the opposite, paying special attention to Song paintings. Can you share the truth with everyone?

Zhang: Song people pay attention to life and hope that the writing method conforms to the nature of things. This leads to the story that Hao Jing, a painter of the Five Dynasties, wrote Song Wan's manuscript on the mountain, but this can't be called realism. It should be said that he writes "truth". Realism refers to the concern and description of the natural attributes of objects, specifically the description of the shape, color, quality and spatial relationship of things. The concept of realism should not be confused with the concept of "truth" in Chinese painting. Those who are "true" write their "reality" for the reality of things and their "Hua" for the "Hua" of things. The analysis of "truth" can get some enlightenment from the understanding of things in Buddhism. The "I" we are talking about is actually "unreal", because with the addition of time and space, the "I" you are now exposed to is an "I" with time and space, an I influenced by social attributes and fascinated by concepts such as fame and fortune. This "I" view of things has its own subjective brand. The "I" formed by space-time conditions and various external environmental influences is both "true" and "untrue". Only by restoring the essence of me through practice can this be the most "real" me. We look at trees in the same way, coupled with many external factors such as the seasons at that time. Now we want to reveal the most "real" things contained in trees, and its original "truth" is not easy. This concept is also found in western culture. Understanding and expressing "truth" requires us to put down our selfish desires and go straight into the realm of "stillness and emptiness", so that you can see the truth of things clearly and write the essence of things. But now the "realism" in people's minds is the image of things. This is because there is already a time-space relationship in it, which is not the same thing. Western philosophy says that people can't step into the same river twice, emphasizing the change of things. When the river is not flowing, it still has the most essential thing of the river, which should be called the original thing.

In Chinese painting, stones need to be dark and dry when writing, and you can't hesitate at all. The swinging direction of the pen is very consistent with the turning point of the real stone. From these details, we can see that this carefree use of pen and ink is China's concept of pen and ink, which runs through the whole painting process. You don't want to see the shadow of this stone is black. In fact, when painting, it is not a random painting of black, but arranged one by one according to the structure of rocks.

Reporter: Today's era is a high-tech era. Can the aesthetic taste of Chinese painting be consistent with today's life?

Zhang: At present, there are many controversies about the modernity of Chinese painting, such as the innovation of works. I think we should judge innovation by whether the path we take conforms to the growth path of China painters, that is, "following the rules and changing". Of course, many modern painters like to regard their art as conceptual art, and they will use schema to express brand-new visual feelings.

So they also like to call Chinese painting conceptual art, and I like pen and ink. Whether you care about ideas or not, as a painter in China, it ultimately comes down to pen and ink. You can make up the world, but only if you are good at writing. Pen and ink have their own character, and Chinese painting emphasizes artistic conception and character, which is manifested by pen and ink and involves people's different understanding of innovation. Some people say that the pace of life is getting faster and faster now, and people can't taste your works slowly. I hope I can understand them at first sight. This reason is too shallow. The harmony of life is very important for the survival of life. It needs two states, one is dynamic and the other is static. Once, a Malaysian journalist was not used to our ink painting and asked me, "We young people just can't accept it. What do you think? " I said of course you can not accept it, but please think about it. When you go out to work and make friends, your whole life is in a state of chaos. Ji Yun said well, "Fame and fortune are two boats". You are running around for fame and fortune, why do you have to make your heart restless as soon as you get home? If you want to find a quiet place, which is the other side of life-silence, then I hope you can find it in my picture. If you insist that you just like to move, don't be quiet, which will do great harm to your life.

Attitude towards life in Chinese painting. Not to stimulate your already turbulent heart, but to hope that such a heart can come back and be quiet sometimes. Therefore, Chinese painting does not engage in visual stimulation, nor does it want people's tired hearts to stir up waves again.

Reporter: You once said in your article that China painters should first study the theory of painting thoroughly, and then find out the place connected with physics, so as to perceive everything; We should also study and cultivate our own nature, make clear our "feelings" and inject feelings into our paintings in order to become a good Chinese painter. Is this the best state of China painters?

Zhang: If a landscape painter wants to use a pen freely, he must understand nature with his heart, just like understanding cows. You must be in this state to draw, so that the pen can move at will.

Reporter: As you said, only by thoroughly understanding the painting theory and memorizing physics can the painter's "temperament" be revealed in the picture. You need to know the structure of the mountain and the relationship between the stone and the tree before you can draw it.

Zhang: Qi Baishi said that painting should be between likeness and dissimilarity. If it is too similar, we can feel it, and if it is too dissimilar, we can feel it, that is, between similarity and dissimilarity. This state is difficult to grasp. This is a cultural definition, and many of us have stolen this intermediate state, so these paintings are either kitsch or deceive the world. If we use this principle to look at Song paintings, it can be summarized as follows: there are differences in similarities, but also several objects at close range (only pen and ink are vertical and horizontal), and the scenery is brilliant at a distance. The realm of painting can refer to the realm shown by Buddhism. The first is to see the mountains, the second is to see the mountains, and the third is to see the mountains or not. This third realm seems to have returned to its original state, but it is not. The third realm represents the "real realm", which is very different from the "material realm" represented by the first realm.

Reporter: Today's interview involves many important concepts of Chinese painting, from which you can see your thinking and unique interpretation as a painter, which represents your consistent pursuit, and these pursuits have been reflected in your picture. I think people may have a deeper feeling when they appreciate your works and understand your Chinese painting concept.