体道之所，造化之境丨“笔法记——林海钟作品展”将于9月2日在北京开幕

In Brushwork Notes, the “truth” is the ontological state pursued by painters, the substance of the world of Qi which has form and matter. Heaven and earth are originally chaotic, and then formed by the interplay of Yin and Yang. In the Tang Dynasty, Neidanists believed that the truth of the universe was a world in which Qi flowed around, and that the truth of the universe was Qi, which was called “true Qi”. The “truth” is the unique Qi that nurtures, gives life to, and gives birth to. The truth of all things is the spirit of life forged by the non-empty Qi. A world of Qi is embodied in the physical world, which is the original meaning of “aiming at truth”. How to understand the truth? Jing Hao puts forward the idea that “lusts spoil life”, treating painting as a kind of self-technique, a series of self-control of thought, spirit, behaviour and existence through which achieves self-transformation, so as to connect with nature, in order to obtain the wisdom, perfection, freedom, transcendence and the state of a “true man”. Being true is the re-awakening of a moral self, the way to move from the ordered moral world to the heavenly world.

In Xu Shen’s Explanation of Characters in Chinese, the character “truth”(真) is interpreted as “the immortal who transforms and ascends to heaven, consisted of匕, 目, 乚, and八, the carriers he rides on.”

In Tao Te Ching, “... there is essence in it, and its essence (Qi) is very true” (Chapter 21). “The matter of truth is like dirty” (Chapter 41). “Its virtue is true” (Chapters 54).

树下罗汉纸本水墨 Ink on paper31x67cm2015

In Zhuangzi, “There is no loss or gain to its truth”; “The Tao abhors hiding itself, but there is truth and falsehood therein”. (Working Everything Out Evenly) “Against its truth”. (The Great and Venerable Teacher) “Being careful to keep and not to lose is the opposite of the true”. (Autumn Floods) “One forgets what is true to himself when tempted by personal gains”. (The Huge Tree) “What is true is what sincerity reaches [...] What is true resides inside, and the spirit moves outside, so the true is valued. [...] For its origin in the Heaven, what is true by nature does not change”. (The Old Fishman) “True” is associated with the concepts of Tao, Qi, nature, wuwei, and virtue, which inherently looks to a kind of heavenly way. The term “true man” corresponds to a person who has attained immortality, and the concepts of “true master”, “true knowledge”, “true disposition” and “true painting” also appear frequently.