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Roberto昨天跟我通了電話, 他很高興跟大家有相當不錯的互動,也很喜歡會後聚餐的中國菜, 他曾寫過一編未曾發表過有關朗靜山大師的文章,以下是這編文章。
Truth: (A Meditation on the Truth of Lang Jingshan)
With the evening breeze
The water laps against
The heron’s legs.
In the dark forest
A berry drops:
The sound of the water.
--Anonymous: -from the Collection of Clear Songs
If you speak the truth, you need no translators.
If you speak the facts, you need many translators.
For facts obscure the truth.
--Maya Angelou
He that is without desire sees its essence.
He that clings to desire sees only its outward form.
--Lao Tzu
Man has no age…. there is the man of yesterday and the man of tomorrow. Time plays no part in the quickening of the spirit. The gate is ever open. Today is like all other days. There is only Today.
-- Henry Miller
The hidden meaning of the body is spirit,
life itself,
not soul,
nor psyche,
but the breath of life.
--Norman O. Brown
I write these words in response to having been requested to make a commentary on the photographic artwork of Lang Jingshan. Before I proceed, it best be known that I am neither an art critic nor a scholastic art historian. If one’s occupation defines what I am, then I am a photographer and have been in this endeavor for more than 30 years.
Many years ago, while viewing a collection of photographs compiled by the famous Mexican photographer, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, I came upon a series of remarkable photographs by a photographer by the name of ‘Chin-san Long’. I was impressed by his pictorial sensitivity and impressionistic painterly style. But mostly by his faithfulness to what I understand to be the ideals of Classical Chinese Art.
It is only now that I realize the photographic artwork I so marveled at was that of none other than ‘Lang Jingshan’. Truthfully I am embarrassed by my ignorance. Prior to this request and recent research I knew nothing of the extensive oeuvre of ‘Lang Jingshan’ and his role as the most prominent figure in Chinese art photography.
These last few weeks I have immersed myself in discovering what I could about the life and artwork of this most impressive individual. I particularly discovered a thesis entitled “The Life and Art Photography of Lang Jingshan” by Lai Kin-Keung Edwin which he wrote for his degree of doctor of philosophy at the University of Hong Kong. It is the most comprehensive study I have ever read concerning the life of any photographer. I mention this because the scholarship of his research is so extensive that any serious study or discussion of Lang Jingshan should reference this professor’s thesis.
Yet as I once again look upon the photography of this man with a new knowledge and understanding, I care less about art theories, historical analysis, methodology, criticisms, aesthetic concerns or pronouncements. For once again I am inexplicably moved by this man’s vision…. his feelings move my feelings…
his imagination and heart moves my imagination and heart…. and I moved and inspired not to spend more time with words but I am filled with a desire to lift my camera and proceed with my own vision, having been inspired by his.
I once read “the proper response to poetry is not criticism but poetry”. So my response to Lang Jingshan’s visual poetry is a most poignant Chinese couplet by the poet Hsuan-Chueh:
Over the river, the shining moon
In the pine trees, sighing wind:
All night long so tranquil
Why?
And for whom?
And indeed for whom? Perhaps, as I see it, the answer is hinted at in the tradition of “nature painting” by the great Sung Masters, and loved so much and emulated by Lang Jingshan, wherein is suggested a hidden life force that flows through the world of mountains, waters, rocks, trees, and birds. As best described by the philosopher Allen Watts, “It is a world to which man belongs but which he does not dominate; it is sufficient to itself, for it was not ‘made for’ anyone and has no purpose of its own”.
And I ask myself what is this world that seems so otherworldly? Then I remember the great Chinese insight and concern for what is truly ‘true’. For as ‘Ching Hao’ says, “resemblance reproduces the formal aspects of objects, but neglects their spirit; truth shows the spirit and substance in like perfection. He who tries to transmit the spirit by the means of the formal aspect and ends by merely obtaining the outward appearance, will produce a dead thing”. These words become almost an admonition for today’s modern aspirations and for those who believe only in an empirical interpretation of reality. For the artistic goal of these Sung Masters is not to produce the formal aspects of the world, but to capture ‘spirit’ by penetrating beyond appearances in order to grasp the essential or ultimate reality. It is no wonder that Lang Jingshan in his pictorial expression remains faithful to the methods and tenets of “Guahua” in order to reach what he sees as the realm of “truth, virtue, and beauty”.
And again I ask myself what exactly is this ‘spirit’ of truth that seemingly lies beyond the world of appearances? Then I remember the first time I viewed a photograph of ‘Lang Jingshan’ and how the emotive power of his vision brought me so into the moment, forgetting yesterday and even tomorrows, I delighted in the immediacy of his expression. And I felt truly connected, at that time to a comforting unknown. And as I ponder this, I reflect on what Lang Jingshan thoughts are concerning art. For ‘Lang Jingshan ‘proclaims ‘truth’ in art is ‘truth’ in life. And he goes on to say that one should always aspire to ‘truth’ in life and not in vision. And that furthermore, art is formed by intelligence and a honest heart to create an art that is suitable to life and all that relates to life in order to be helpful to life itself.
The Chinese Classical Art Tradition shows us that art need not be representational or literal, but if anything, metaphorical, for art is a magic of sorts, that can hold ‘spirit’ captured in the expression of the artist’s vision. And that ‘spirit’, as I see it, that hidden reality behind appearances is a principle of connectedness, a timeless, unhurried flow, an eternal present that is life itself.
For the most part, we live in an empirical world, formed by arbitrary agreements. We define the world in such arbitrary labels as ‘east’ and ‘west’. But are there really an east and west, a north and south? The ‘Western’ tradition in which I was raised, categorizes nature into constructs and divisional parts. These divisions lead to a world-view of duality and conflict, a partitioned place to dominate, a victory to be won. But is this the real world? Seemingly so…but to a group of painters of nature…and to an extraordinary photographer…the real world…lies behind what seemingly seems so real…. in truth…where are we trying to go to…there is no place to go…for we are already there.
For me personally, Lang Jingshan’s visual art inspires and informs us…for what he hints at is true for all. For the hidden truth is no secret at all, for it is life itself that which all generations share. It is the breath of life itself, that which eternally revivifies all that is and that ever will be.
Afterthought
“The miracle is that the honey is always there, right under your nose, only you were too busy searching elsewhere to realize it. The worst is not death but being blind, blind to the fact that everything about life is in the nature of the miraculous.”
--Henry Miller
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