序  言

我跟王開云先生相遇相識乃冥冥之中的一種巧合。2010年初夏，在江蘇靖江，無意中走進一家以營生為目的的小畫廊。一幅中國書法的草書作品令我眼睛一亮（見圖一），作者對中國傳統書法韻味的感覺，對草書結體、線條、節奏、整體的把握，令我頓生“不信今時無古賢”肅然起敬之感。在墻角邊放著一張畫(見圖二)，畫面所顯現出來的畫家的繪畫意識之高，令我對其仰止。我問及此書畫作者，答 : “我 ”。面對這位時齡50歲，比我年小十一歲的憨厚結實的農村漢子王開云，我投去了刮目相看的眼光。

我跟王開云先生進行了探討性的攀談，逐又請來善作慈善事業的企業家馬中亮先生給與經濟上的幫助，解決其后顧之憂，勸其全身心地進行書畫研究與創作。為了找到答案，我繼而又專程去其家鄉做了一些必要的調查研究工作。

王開云先生1962年出生在中國安徽省樅陽縣白梅鄉東山村楊莊隊，處在距長江不遠處的大山里，在中國，山區相對來說是比較封閉落后的。少年時，他在家鄉讀完初中，幫助父母干些農活。15歲背井離鄉外出打工以圖生計，他下過礦井，修過馬路，當過搬運工。在此同時，王開云先生省吃儉用，時而買些廉價的質量較差的筆墨紙硯，打工之余練練書畫，在無師的情況下琢磨自學。他有時也去書店讀些美術理論方面的書籍，去美術館看畫展。王開云攜全家定居在江蘇省靖江市，開畫廊買賣商品畫謀生，雖然條件好了些，但這也是近幾年的事。

從他的生平經歷來看：出生在落后貧窮封閉的山區農村；初中文化程度；無師從；沒有系統受過專業的美術教育；干重活苦活；用于畫畫寫字的時間不足等，都足以說明，他要成為一名相對成熟的畫家的內外在條件是不具備的。他雖然也經常注意看一些與繪畫有關的理論書籍，但在與他的攀談中所聽到的也都是些社會流俗的陳詞濫調，他也把當下一些以個人主義為基礎的所謂創新派，前衛派的教條掛在嘴邊，把故作的個性化的標新立異當真理供奉。但他和那些抱著功利主義創作動機并瞎編濫造理論的畫家們不同，因為文化水平所限，他對天、地、人的關系；人類文明發展史；各宗教的自然觀；人類審美創造過程的基礎理論；中西方思想意識形態發展史；中西方美術史等的知識嚴重缺乏，僅是鸚鵡學舌而已，所以在他的繪畫作品里并沒發現那些斑斑劣跡的東西。從上述兩個方面，我都沒能找到解析王開云繪畫緣由的切入點。王開云畫崇山峻嶺、河流大川、雪域冰山，廣袤平原、浩瀚大海、蔚藍天空、朝暉夕陽、煙籠鎖霧、都能表現出造物主的偉大與圣潔，找到自然時空與自己心靈意象的契合點。讓觀者在賞畫時，感到自己深愛著大自然的同時又似乎被另外一種愛包裹著。只有欽佩!我的結論是:此人是 “天才”! 王開云的畫作讓我沖動得就想去親它吻它，那是圣潔無塵的天堂，沒有人類文明帶來的任何瑕疵，它似乎讓我看到了上帝造物之初的景象，我堅信這絕非凡人之所為，我突然在腦海里閃出兩個字: “神授 ”!

我從唯物主義的角度所進行的工作無解，我只能嘗試著從精神層面上去挖掘。我想起前不久，我曾為介紹王開云的畫時，寫過一篇題為«大山之子»的文章，我在文中寫道:“王開云是大山抱大的，一般畫家提倡寫生，不過是蜻蜓點水，走馬觀花……”。我要解開王開云繪畫之迷，我就必須尋找到他與其他繪畫大師的本質區別的形成原因。我又要證明我發現的這個區別在客觀上、邏輯上是成立的      。但我現在想起來卻后悔得直跺腳，我當時已經站在了打開謎底的大門前，卻沒再往里跨一步。試問:大山將他抱大他會不愛這片土地，不愛這里的大山大河，不愛這里的一草一木嗎?。在人世間，這份情感是至高無上的，這應該就是王開云繪畫成就的基石!

我找到了打開謎底大門的鑰匙，興奮不已！我便按照這一思路向王開云提問。我問:“小時候，你眼中的世界是怎樣的?”答:“大山大河，很大很美，外面的世界我是不知道的。我來到這個世界，睜開眼睛所看到的山河，手掌摸到的山壁，腳底踩著的碎石，耳里聽到的風聲以及身體感受到的春夏秋冬的變化，尤其是冰天雪地的那些景象，都儲存在我幼小的記憶里，這就是我小時候全部的世界。”我問:“你15歲后離開家鄉，你為什么不畫外面的東西?”答:“不美，沒有美的激動。”我問:“你是否偏愛家鄉的環境:”答:“是的，很偏，好像有個靈魂在招我學畫，我要把我眼里心里的家鄉的景致畫出來，我一動筆就亢奮，我很愛我的家鄉，那里的空氣是甜的，水是甜的，山外有山，無窮無盡，翻越一座又一座，讓人遐想是通達天堂的，我的畫筆也會不知不覺地畫到那邊去。只要踏上家鄉的土地，我就會感覺到大山在招呼我，流泉在為我歡唱。我也會跟它們說說心里話。”我問的最后一個問題是:“你愛這些大山大河，你感覺得到它們愛你嗎?”

王開云回答這個問題，回答得實在精彩，他說:“不僅我感覺得到，家鄉的父老鄉親都感覺得到，我們祖祖輩輩就是享受著這些山山水水無私的給予，才在這塊土地上生存下來的。我的畫，外邊的人看不懂，而我的老鄉都看得懂。”顯而易見，問題的答案找到了。王開云深深地愛著大自然，大自然反饋給了王開云啟迪與智慧，他無意中從大自然中獲得了神授，引導他懂得了畫畫不是畫畫，自然也不是人類理性反觀的自然，是通過畫畫把上帝的愛傳遞給人間，自然就要畫得真實，人們在觀畫愛畫的同時也能體會得到被愛的幸福。這也是我最初看到王開云畫作時，情感油然而生的原故。王開云繪畫成就有幾點比較重要的，觀者可注意一下。

一 ，中國在近現代也出現了多位中國畫大師，由于他們忠實于中國筆墨的研究與使用，他們的成就都被定格在中國區域內，深奧的中國筆墨文化反而在與世界文化溝通上成了難以逾越的障礙。近現代也有不少學習西畫的中國人，憑借他們的個人才氣和集體研究成果，在技法的掌控上，有很大的長進，但在體現西方文化和精神內涵上，卻格格不入。王開云的畫筆從表現其家鄉的山山水水著手，一直聯想到天堂的山山水水，為把人與自然的愛與被愛傳遞給這個世界上的每一個人，他從自然界獲取靈感，拋棄了中國筆墨文化的區域禁錮，也審視了對人類文明發展影響較大的，尤其是歐洲文藝復興以來的近百位西方繪畫大師的技法，覺得他們在表現他們自己的各門各派各主義的畫面效果時，都有獨到之處，但表達的也就是他們個人的理解、理性、感覺與理念。他們把對象作為反觀的對象，進行類化、抽象化、概念化、非具象化……，以致達到與他們個人的感覺中的意識一致的效果。王開云發現這各門各派各主義就社會學角度來說，具有文藝復興，推動社會自由民主化進程的偉大意義。但是，各門各派各主義的本身卻是莫衷一是的，他們的成就都只能代表他們自己的一個片面，王開云覺得一個人的理性在真理面前是很蒼白的，哪怕將他們所有的技法都囊括進來，也無法滿足他心中對彼岸暢想的一種情感表達。他必須自創新法!

二 ，談到歐洲，就不得不談到耶穌教。我沒記錯的話，圣經里說:上帝六日工程造出自然界萬物，在上帝愛的世界里，萬物沒有高低貴賤之分，一切都是上帝所造，上帝平等地愛它們，愛它們一切。按照這個提示，要表達好真正真實的自然界，采用最豐富的一切法，方為可能。王開云無師，看來是無師可拜，中西方所有的畫家們所用的技法在表達物象與意象方面，都取得了比較多的經驗，但要表達出自然界的愛與被愛，那是遠遠不夠的(圣畫中，表達人愛與被愛是很多的)。幾十年來，他從“自然神圣法則”中感受到了無限豐富的“一切法”。他獨自反復琢磨，成功地實現了這個目標。用繪畫方式完成了自己對彼岸的暢想，為上帝與人之間搭建起了一座愛的橋梁，做了一件凡人無法企及的事。王開云的繪畫技法跟古今中外的任何畫派的技法都不同，故他的繪畫作品具有不可復制性，每一幅畫都只是孤品。

三 ，基督教教義里，似乎主要是強調人愛人，人愛小動物、植被及一切生命體。基督教對自然界的環保觀念也是為了保護自然界的有機物而立的，這當然是神圣的。但是，我們細想一下，上帝把造好的結構完美的自然界交給我們人類管理，使徒們不僅要倡導人們愛自然界中的生命體，還同樣應該重視愛護無機物的自然界本身，她是母體，是一切生命體賴以生存的條件，她是上帝所造，上帝同樣愛她，王開云先生給了我們一個很重要的啟迪和教材，我覺得中西方各基督教會也應該重視起這個問題來。基督教繪畫藝術，人們稱之為“圣畫”。但大多是人物畫居多，這是因為教會的主要圣工作還是以“愛人”為軸心，圣經里的故事以人物故事為多，尤其是歐洲文藝復興以后強調人性解放的緣故。王開云的繪畫是圣潔的自然景致，是屬靈藝術，是否可認定為“圣畫”類別上的一個補充，我在這里不敢枉下定義，應由神學專家們來評說。

四 ，王開云不是基督徒，也不是泛神論者。但每一位藝術家所創作的作品本質上都是其內在精神世界的外化，在激情支配下，藝術家的性格、修養、理想、感受、情感甚至信仰都會很真實的顯示出來。從王開云繪畫作品里可以看到他是崇拜自然，承認神造自然的。這實際上就是證明了他的內心跟上帝是相通的，否則他不可能在畫面里顯現得出“自然神性”。自然的本質是“善”的精神,唯人的心中有“崇高而圣潔的愛”才能感覺得到。而王開云對家鄉山山水水的這份愛以及他對山外的聯想在前面的采訪中已溢于言表，清澈透亮的無塵境界在他的畫面里表達得是最為充分的。

五 ，寫實(具象)畫家往往會象畫標本一樣畫畫；寫意畫家往往會在里面注意到一些氣息表達自己的意象；抽象畫家是將客觀對象反觀成自己的主觀對象，用自己老道的手法處理畫面；非具象畫家則是用藝術符號處理出具有視覺審美效果的圖案。王開云畫畫時，為了表達好他所神往的天、他所神往的地及天地間的一切，他會自由地采用上述的其中任何一種或多種繪畫手段。好評者說他的畫是西畫，是中西結合，是這一門的，那一派的，是寫意的，是抽象的，是寫實的。其實，上帝無門無派，王開云也是追求無門無派的。我曾向某觀眾解釋過，王開云只想把自己心中的伊甸園畫出來，他從不去考慮畫種與門派，王開云的繪畫是獻給全人類的。

結   束   語

德國哲學家黑格爾在《邏輯學》的結尾，闡釋絕對精神的邏輯有這樣話 :“最豐富的東西是最具體的和最主觀的，二者把自己收回到最單純的深處的東西，是最強有力的和最囊括一切的。最高、最鋒銳的頂峰是純粹的人格，它唯一地通過那成為自己的本性的絕對辯證法，既把一切都包攝在自身之內，又因為它使自身成為最自由的，－－仍保持著單純性，這個單純性是最初的直接性和普遍性。” 我用 這位出生在十八世紀的偉大的德國哲學家美學家的這段話來作為結束語，是想告慰這位偉人，盡管他的“絕對精神”思想在當時被同時代的叔本華等哲學家猛力抨擊過，然而，在兩百多年后卻被人以繪畫的形式證實了。請大家記住他，他的名字叫:王開云。

周生力

2013年11月9日寫第二稿于上海

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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體是Bookman Old Style）