Twenty-Four Solar Terms: Questions and Answers on Life in All Seasons

Twenty-Four Solar Terms: Questions and Answers on Life in All Seasons

—— Notes on the creation of "Twenty-Four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Seasons"

Xu Dongdong

The spring equinox is three seasons, and Xu Dongdong is composed

"The spring rain shocks the spring valley days, and the summer is full of mango and summer and summer are connected. Autumn dew autumn frost falls, winter snow snow winter small cold. "The twenty-four solar terms have a long history and contain an interpretation of the esoteric astrological code of the universe. Just after the Qingming Festival, the book "Twenty-four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Waits" with pictures and texts broke into our eyes, so there was a topic for this issue. This book selects more than 140 abstract paintings created by Professor Xu Dongdong, a national first-class artist, with the theme of "Twenty-four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Seasons", as well as nearly 80 text works of veteran journalist Xu Lijing who have completed the four seasons in combination with paintings, and includes dialogues with Wang Meng, Ding Yihui, Xue Qikun, Chen Lai and other representative figures in the fields of culture, science and philosophy. From the perspective of Chinese life aesthetics and life force, the book excavates and expounds the contemporary value and world significance of the twenty-four solar terms and seventy-two seasons.

"Painting is not the goal, asking is the fundamental." Following this philosophy, Xu Dongdong insists on intervening in cultural thinking and cultural practice as a painter. Let us follow the painter's creative thoughts and get closer to the ancient twenty-four solar terms and the Chinese culture behind them. Spring contains winter, summer contains autumn, I hope that everyone can follow the footsteps of the twenty-four solar terms and seventy-two seasons, and feel the four seasons of their lives with their hearts.

- Editor

In the Mid-Autumn Festival of 2013, the new life stretched out in that rich autumn rhyme. I walked alone in the "cloud return" of the retreat on the outskirts of Beijing, and a fish faintly flashed in the light of the maple shadow. The "Twenty-Four Seasons , Seventy-Two Seasons" series of paintings in the "Four Seasons" group painting entered the creative schedule, this creation is different from the past, no longer the replacement of the scenery of the four seasons that people feel, but the trajectory of the painter's soul beating in the universe, it is so comfortable, the whole process makes me have a new understanding of heaven, earth and people.

1

The Twenty-Four Solar Terms have a long history, dating back to ancient times, and contain an interpretation of the esoteric astrological code of the universe. Starting from the ancient twenty-four solar terms and seventy-two seasons, asking about the changes of the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter is my creation of independently exploring the essence of life in the face of all things in the universe, and it is also a means of answering questions and answers about life in the four seasons. I experienced the wisdom of the Chinese ancestors, understood The Chinese culture's understanding of many issues in the cosmic world, including the birth of life, the change of heaven and earth, and gave new ideas abstract expressions.

The creation of the group painting "Twenty-Four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Seasons" lasted for eight years, which carried my inquiry into the ideas and paths of Chinese abstract painting, and even more pinned on the expectations of China's new culture. Looking for abstract concepts in Chinese philosophy, making them a painting language, and establishing Chinese-style abstract logical thinking is the essence of Chinese abstract painting. Placing one's soul in nature, thinking independently in the face of the universe, and realizing the true meaning of life is something that has not been realized before.

The group paintings of "Twenty-Four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Seasons" summarize my understanding of "elephants" in the three stages of imagery, impression and abstract painting and my experience in creating questions for decades, especially my thinking on the process of exploration of Chinese abstract painting in the past ten years. It is based on the comparison between human cultural processes and Eastern and Western cultures, feels the wisdom of Chinese culture entering the world, and puts forward questions and answers on the relationship between human society and the nature of the universe.

2

The group painting "Twenty-Four Solar Terms : Seventy-Two Seasons" (2013-2020) is the opening work of the "Four Seasons" series.

"The three realms of spring: one is the winter to the spring, and the old is new; the second is the quiet elegance of the new life, the nature of life at the beginning; the third is the beauty of the withering after the hundred flowers compete for glory..."

"Summer is the conception of life. Mother Earth's womb gives birth to all things, and life moves from chaos to form. The earth gives birth to all things as fraternity, it leads to benevolence and righteousness, and benevolence and righteousness are love. The universe itself already has love..."

"Where will this lonely leaf fall in the four seasons?" People have passed the year of knowing the destiny of heaven as the master said, but they have never savored the soul of the four seasons, and life has passed in a hurry, only knowing the human condition, and the white hair on the head. Only with a state of mind like a falling leaf can we put the soul in the wilderness and the desert, and only then can we know the trajectory of the soul beating in the four seasons. ”

"The expression of winter, on the surface, is relatively monotonous. But the key to this 'hidden' word, how to be more 'deep' and 'heavy' performance, lies in the use of color ink things, is taken from the clear snow at that time, clear snow stored yang qi, after the color to represent the word 'sink', very meaningful. Later, the painting was covered with a 'snow quilt', and there was a change between the color ink and rice paper, one snow, two times snow, three times snow, each different, the lower the temperature behind, the more different the effect, simply carry the painting in the outdoor snow day, watch its changes, this is a method that has never been done before. Really put the soul in nature..."

Reading these creative notes again, it seems that I have suddenly returned to the days when I created "Twenty-Four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Seasons". Meditation, meditation, reading, tea tasting, creating and organizing drawings are the most important parts of life. Meditate on the return of the clouds, get up in the morning magpies to the window, and spend the day with peonies. In the tasting of tea, the "virtual reality" is realized, and the "truth" is seen in meditation, and its "image" is like the "qi" of chaos. "Qi" gives birth to all things in chaos, and the "elephant" of all things is born in chaos. All things are born here in the four seasons, and the pen and ink fall in the "true" image. The pen goes to the "color void", and the ink contains "there is no". In the life chain of this abstract logical thinking, the pen and ink of "Twenty-Four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Seasons" are like a mother giving birth to a child, and in this great era, it has "given birth smoothly". It's a process of asking the whole story and germinating new life.

3

The creation of the group painting of "Twenty-Four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Seasons" is a process of out-of-form and de-knowledge in the state of "ignorant knowledge", which conforms to the laws of the "Tao" and has the value of "life". The transformation of yin and yang qi rhymes, wandering in infinity. "Qi" changes into form, shape changes and is born, there is no accompanying birth and destruction, and it should be reincarnated at four o'clock in spring, summer, autumn and winter. Shuntian Dao, stressing "truth" and seeking "truth", doing nothing and doing nothing, not deliberately deviating from the heavenly path and seeking man-made, and pursuing a harmonious state between people, people and society, and between people and nature is the ideal "for".

When we discuss chinese abstract logical thinking and establish Chinese abstract painting, the wisdom of Chinese culture can be brought into play again. The origin of Chinese civilization can be traced back to the era of Pangu's opening of heaven and earth, and the dry branch theory invented by the Emperor in ancient times is a precedent for Chinese culture to understand the universe, and it has a great influence on the calendar, number, calculation, and naming of chinese later generations. I started from the twenty-four solar terms and seventy-two days to face the cosmic world and explore the four seasons, which originated from the stem branch. The phenology and climate summarized by its observation of the changes in the stars in heaven and earth have produced a subtle and basic creative role in the production, change and sublimation of Chinese thought, as well as the social life of the Chinese nation. It is necessary to start from the twenty-four solar terms and seventy-two days produced by the stem and branch theory, which is the driving force of Chinese culture, to feel the truth, goodness, and beauty of the cosmic world, to ponder the mysteries of the four seasons, and to open the spiritual window of China's new culture.

The group painting "Twenty-Four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Seasons" brings a new understanding of the universe and a new way of observing the universe in Chinese culture. The emergence of new ideas, new realms, and new creations is due to the revelation and teaching that I have realized from the New Theory of Knowledge. The first contact with the concept of "wisdom" originated from Mr. Xiong Shili, a master of Chinese philosophy. In the 1970s and 1980s, I meditated on the ink sea of imagery, and I had the privilege of getting to know many respected cultural and artistic figures, such as the poets Ai Qing and Zang Kejia, the calligrapher and Buddhist scholar Zhao Puchu, the essayist Nie Shuyi, the writers Xiao Jun and Luo Binji, the sociologist Fei Xiaotong, the dramatist Cao Yu, the dancer Wu Xiaobang, the translator Qian Zhongshu, Xiao Qian, Yang Xianyi, the calligraphers and painters Zhang Boju, the sculptor Liu Kaiqu, the calligraphers and painters Liu Haisu, Wang Chaowen, Li Keyan, Qi Gong, Zhang Qi, Wang Senran, etc. Many of my predecessors have given me a lot of teachings. The extraordinary brushwork and ink of famous artists of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties allowed me to understand the methods and unique perspectives of Chinese culture in observing nature from the paintings of the ancients. At the same time, the ideas of The sages such as Song Ming Theory, Zhu Xi, Ercheng, Lu Xiangshan, and Wang Shouren were greatly inspired to me. The works of contemporary thinkers and philosophers Ma Yifu, Hu Shi, Qian Mu, Liang Shuming, Feng Youlan and others are also of interest to me, of which Mr. Xiong Shili is one of my favorites. He set the direction for modern Confucianism, set an example for his peers and future generations, and made those who came after him feel respected. For me, the younger generation, I really did not expect that the wisdom of a new solipsism that could not be read thirty-five years ago was inadvertently integrated into the process of establishing Chinese abstract painting today. The New Theory of Knowledge, which recognizes the wisdom of the cosmic world, is a lamp of sages that illuminates a path of the Great Path. Its "Eight Senses" provided a method for me to understand the four seasons and create the group painting of "Twenty-Four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Seasons".

When my pen and ink face the cosmic world directly, I no longer feel the changes with my eyes, nose, tongue, and ears only from the outside of natural phenomena, or experience them from the culture inherited from my predecessors, but through the transition of my own "heart" to the reactions of every part of the brain and body. At this time, the human body is like a sensor, sensing the cosmic world, constantly releasing unknown signals, transmitted to the heart, reacting to the hands and brains, and falling on the end of the pen. It is precisely because of the recognition of the meaning of "original knowledge" that the "Four Seasons" group painting can further understand the "truth" of the nature of the universe. Using color brush and ink to express the soul-like spiritual dialogue between all things, sensing heaven, earth and people, and understanding the "truth" of the universe, this is the most fundamental difference between the "Four Seasons" group painting and previous creations.

4

The creation of "Four Seasons" always takes "qi" as the source of the "truth" of life to observe the changes of the four seasons. The change of yin and yang in the "twenty-four solar terms" is attributed to the change in the angle of the ecliptic meridian brought about by the rotation of the sun. In "Seventy-Two Seasons", the vivid qi brought about by the mutual transformation and alternation of yin and yang is the embodiment of the harmonious beauty of the cosmic world, which is the spiritual realm of life expressed in the group painting of "Twenty-Four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Seasons".

"Qi" gives birth to "things" with the movement of the sun, and the changes in yin and yang bring about the appearance of all things in the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Every 5 degrees of the sun's turn of the yellow longitude is five days and one season, each turn of the yellow longitude of 15 degrees is a fifteen-day solar term, and each turn of the yellow longitude of 360 degrees is a year of four seasons; one year contains 365 days, 24 solar terms, and 72 days. The rotation of the sun brings about the change of yin and yang qi rhyme between the universe, the change of the position of the handle of the seven stars of the Big Dipper, and the reproduction of the understanding of celestial bodies, this cosmic outlook on life that asks the heavens has always revolved around the pen and ink of "Four Seasons". In the eight years since the creation of "Twenty-Four Solar Terms , Seventy-Two Seasons", it is really a time shuttle, but there is no moment of hesitation, do not miss the blessings of time brought by each festival, do not miss the momentary touch brought by each season, do not miss the philosophy of the concept of life in the universe brought about by the change of the four seasons, and do not miss the pursuit of the truth, goodness and beauty of life in the philosophical epiphany. From the intersection and change of yin and yang and yin and yang every hour, daily and every wait, to the change of the universe and the world, to the "heart" of the life of all things, the monologue of the soul in the group painting of "Twenty-Four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Waits" is brought to the subtle expression of the essence of life. I once said: "The truth, goodness and beauty pursued by the "Four Seasons" group painting is not only the composition, color and intention presented by the picture, but the truth of exploring the essence of life of all things." ”

With the initial completion of the "Twenty-Four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Seasons" group painting, Chinese abstract painting has a new method in the application of ideas, intentions, art forms and materials, especially the application of traditional tools such as rice paper and brushes, which has produced new effects, laying the foundation for the next step of in-depth exploration of the "Four Seasons" series.

"The qi passes through the color, and the five aggregates are empty. Meditate on the four seasons and meditate between heaven and earth. In the aura of the vast Chinese culture, the "truth" of watching the movement of all things, the soul will be free to communicate in the ethereal. "Trance, there are elephants in it; trance, there are things in it..." Lao Tzu said, "The Tao is a thing, but trance is only a trance", which is exactly the soul-like trajectory of the "Four Seasons" group painting.

Source: China Education News