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Embracing History
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By Jin Dongfang
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The Consulate
General of France in Hong Kong First sponsored “Exhibition of Jin Dongfang's
Paintings”. Then this exhibition was transferred to the Hong Kong Country
Club for continued exhibition to the end. These two exhibitions were no
longer characters of operas as usual, but paintings created form China's
ancient inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells or on ancient bronze
objects. The lines and touches of their paintings are either bold and
free or fine and tender. Their colours are either bright and beautiful
or traditional and simple. Those who do not know the facts may think that
their style belongs to abstractionism of the West. In the opening speech
of the exhibition, Monsieur Jerome Pasquier, the Consulate General, call
the pictures “semi-abstract” ones.
This is not surprising at all. In fact I originally
painted oil paintings. But because of the narrowness of my home, the large
drawing frame I had used for more than 20 years before was too big to
be put in, so I had to give it to my student. When my family situation
improved enough to allow me to paint, my home is still small. So I had
to find a way out. By drawing on my foundation of Chinese Traditional
painting, I used rice paper and ink and wash. The desk originally used
for writing is used for painting when it is free. So the desk plays double
roles, and space is saved.
At first, I drew pictures from
characters of operas, I held one painting exhibition every year at home
city and abroad which was always acclaimed. But since 1993 my paintings
created from ancient Chinese words as well, today seem to receive warmer
welcome. Hence comes such a question: “How do you happen to get inspiration
from inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells"?
The Chinese
characters are of square form, which are composed of strokes and then
component parts. They differ in their component parts. The more component
parts the character has, the more complicated it is. No matter whether
it is simple or complicated, the word has its own interest. Our forefathers
used pictography, indication, pictophonetics and association and so on
to express a concept. It has not direct relationship with phonectics.
For example, the Chinese character “笑”(laugh)
and “哭”(cry). The component part “竹”(bamboo)
becomes the smiling eyes. While the component part “口口”(two
mouths) now become two eyes, a pair of expressionless eyes. What is wonderful
is the dot of another part underneath. It becomes a drop of tear. As a
result, this word exactly looks like crying when we look at its picture.
As far as
pronunciation is concerned, these “笑”(laugh)
and “哭” (cry) have a number of words of the
same sound, such as 孝, 嘯,
肖 and 枯, 骷,
窟. Therefore, in comparison with seeing and
hearing, seeing is undoubtedly more important. It can bring the picture
nature of the character into full play, which can directly arouse our
function of vision impression. In Singapore, an investigation was made
among more than 7000 children aged from 6 to 12. It has proved that those
children who have studied the pictographic Chinese words, including those
in Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea, have higher intelligence quotient
than that of the children in Britain, Germany and Australia. This shows
that the pictographic feature of the words can surely train the thinking
of the children and make it more active and more creative.
What is interesting
is how those foreigners, such as Ezra Pound, who have some knowledge about
the Chinese language, understand Chinese Characters. For example, about
the character ”春” (spring) Ezra Pound said:
“The sun perches under the luxuriant grass and trees.” According to him,
the character “東” (east) is “the sun hides among
the branches of trees.” In his mind, the character “男”
(man), look like “a strong man tilling the land.” For foreigners, looking
at a word is like looking at a picture. They get the true nature of the
Chinese language.
However, when
they read “spring”, “east” or “man” in English, they just hear them with
their ears. When they look at them, these words are different letters
in different arrangements. Only when Chinese read, they get the first
impression from vision by the eye. Therefore, the Chinese Character “閱”
means “to look”, “讀” means “to read with the
mouth and hear with the ear.” We put “閱” before
“讀” because we first look and then hear. This
is a double operation or double function belonging to both time and space.
More than 4,000 years ago, the
life of the ancient people was very simple. When they created the language,
they used the pictographic method. That was quite enough. Therefore pictographic
words are signs as well as pictures. In these thousands of years, people's
life has become more and more complicated. With progress of times, language
is also changing at the same time. Our language, the Chinese language,
has gone through inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells, "inscriptions"
on ancient bronze objects, "Dazhuan", "Xiaozhuan"
calligraphy and "Lishu", "Kai", "Hang" style,
regular script and running-hand calligraphy. With a series of changes,
we have now the "Simplified" characters. No matter how many
changes there are, we still first look and then read. Because our language
has the picture function. It has the sense of beauty in vision.
In the ancient times, this was more obvious.
In the Xia and Shang Dynasties, people practiced divination before doing
any important event. When they got the fortune telling, they carved it
as written form on tortoise shells or on cow bones. Then in the Shang
and Zhou Dynasties, people could make bronze objects, so the carrier of
the language was partially transferred to the bronze bells and tripods,
which was inscriptions on ancient bronze objects. You will get a lot of
fun when you look at them one by one: for example the word 
人(man), in simply several strokes, the head, the body and the
four limbs are vividly displayed with force and dignity. When you turn
it upside down, it becomes.  逆(to rebel). Another example: 
坐(to sit), a man is sitting on a mat. Even the mat has its lines!
In fact our ancient people used to sit on a mat. The word  is “雨” (rain). And the word  is “果” (fruit), which needs no explanation.
Scholars of the past and present have studied inscriptions
on shells and bones and bronze objects without interruption. Up to now
they are able to recognize more than 2000 words. These 2000 words and
more can be looked at as 2000 and more pictures. Every word contains natural
beauty and rules. Every one of them has its body posture and its implication.
Its spirit may be vivid and active or serene and kind. There is no word
that is without beauty.
Actually, not only the ancient language looks
beautiful, but also its carrier, shells, bones, bells, tripods, swords,
bronze looking glass all look beautiful. With the passage of time, they
look more beautiful. Because several thousand years ago, these fresh and
bright objects had their own beauty of shape, beauty of structure, beauty
of quality sense, and beauty of colour ……. They went through ages of joys
and sorrows, of partings and reunions, the nation's honour and disgrace,
its success and failure, like waves pounding on them and leaving traces
on them. Then yielding to these heavy loads, these artifacts gradually
faded, peeled off and became cultural relics. They are so full of beauty
of melancholy and grief and paleness. Some of them are gorgeous because
of bronze and iron rust and oxidation and therefore have mystic fascination
and consummate beauty. Their beauty lies in their long and rich history,
in their historical intrinsic meaning, in their thickness of history,
their heavy load of history and in their solemn and stirring history.
As a matter of fact, this kind of beauty can never be imitated by the
hand of the artist, but the artist can not stand indifferent and remain
an on-looker before them.
It is absolutely true. We should not
be on-lookers. When seeing something beautiful, an artist cannot help
drawing it into a picture. This is an artist's instinct and pursuit. The
ancient Chinese language is beautiful, the painter wants to study it,
meditate on it, explain it and express the beauty in it. In the process,
he cannot avoid hesitation, and feeling puzzled ….. But after a period
of time, the ancient language gradually relives in the heart of the painter.
He feels that every word contains a living life, every word has a story.
He is inspired by the desire for appreciation. In his mind's eye, there
appear colourful traditional Chinese pictures one after another from these
ancient characters, From this inspiration he brings their beauty into
full play and elaborates it with spirit and environment, with style and
interest.
《Embracing the Future》is
a book written by Bill Gates. Its theme is to strive for success. But
don't forget that we have two hands, Besides embracing the future by one
hand, let's embrace history as well by another hand. The past unforgotten
can be a teacher for the future. I am quite willing to embrace history.
History is eternal. The longer it is, the mellower
is it. Therefore, when I do writing, I prefer to write historical novels.
When I engage in painting pictures, I prefer to paint pictures of operas
and pictures of ancient words. In a word, I cannot cut away from history
or the past. I always feel that the present is too near me. I cannot distinguish
the directions and I feel puzzled. When observing and appreciation, I
need the distance.
In these years, I have created many pictures on ancient
Chinese characters. These pictures can be regarded as my footholds after
I fall in love with history from afar and embrace it.
(This article was published in the issue of March
16, 1999 of Ming Pao in Hong Kong)
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