Poetry

As what Mr. Liu said, "the core of Chinese painting is poetry."When splashes of ink are not enough to express his appreciation towards home, he turns to poems to intensify his affection, as in Recalling My Hometown, a spontaneous outflow of his keenness to sail in the waves:

Clouds embrace the cave when the cliffs glow,

Accompanied by the setting sun, up we go:

Boundless waters wind under the lofty heaven,

And a boat drifts about in the river swollen.

And the romantic poem On Admiring the Cliffside Spring in Taishan Mountains, a perfect combination of the sight and sound, the dynamic and the static, which offer us another viewpoint of this solemn mountain:

For thousands of miles, the pines are followed by the win;

The falling flowers and ringing spring disturbs the valley serene.

Rain spatters the mossy path in morn;

The air roams, sending the clouds home.

In some other poems, Mr. Liu describes the pines in Taishan Mountain as passionate, proud, brave and tough, which is, in fact, a reflection of his own character. It is acknowledged that Chinese painting mirrors the quality of the painter, and Liu Baocun stands out with his integrity and fugitivity, or pronounced in Chinese, yi.

Disciple of Taishan Mountain

"I owe my painting skill and everything to Taishan Mountain,"Mr. Liu once said,"and I would try my best to praise her."He has once made a comparison between the pines in Taishan Mountain and that in Huangshan Mountain, another sacred place in China, concluding: pines in Huangshan Mountain, grown in a mild climate and fertile soil, offers more glamour than those in Taishan, but the latter form a unique simplicity and ambition from the wicked environment. They are just like the fellows in the north. His enthusiasm towards Taishan pines, however, never ends.

Liu sheds tears on the dying trees in this mountain, holding a funeral each time a pine is lost. These plants have, in his heart, become his brothers—they are where his soul rests, where his ambition unfolds.

A real artist must have a heartful of love; otherwise, an aesthetic and humanistic world under his brush is impossible. Savoring the works by Mr. Liu, we can see a style tough as the Taishan Mountain while unconstrained as the sea—"Why tears always overflow my eyes?"a line by Ai Qing, a Chinese poet may voice Liu’s love—"Because I love this land too much.”

By Yuan Yue (Shandong Bureau)

Editor: Liu Fang