羅青 溪山行旅第八圖 2016 180 x 96 cm
羅青 溪山行旅第九圖 2017 180 x 96 cm
時間/Time : 2017 1/14–2/26
地點/Venue : 九十九度藝術中心
台北市承德路七段 286-1 號
電話 : +886 2 2821 1599
畫廊連結 : http://www.99dac.com/main/showContent.php?id=127
羅青作 追逐落日成朝陽 2016
電郵山水/Email Landscape 2015
Lo Ch’ing
中國墨彩山水畫，始於三國隋唐，成熟于唐末五代，是反映時代思想精神及美學品味發展的最佳溫度計，發展至今，大約經歷過三大轉變。
五代至北宋初期，是中國山水畫史上第一個藝術風格爆發期。此一時期，山水畫在構圖上，由模擬紀實式的通景，轉化入賓主分明的造景；在主題上，則由歷史、掌故、敘事，轉向興懷、寓意、抒情；在技巧上，以水墨表現為主，以鉤彩敷色為輔。「外師造化，中得心源」的美學原則，在畫家紛紛創造自家獨特的商標皴法及畫法下，得到充分的實踐。
稍後，巨然 (935?-1000?) 的＜蕭翼賺蘭亭圖＞、＜層巖叢樹圖＞和＜秋山問道圖＞、＜溪山蘭若圖＞，范寬 (950?-1032?) 的＜谿山行旅圖＞、＜雪景寒林圖＞，郭熙 (1000?-1087?) 的＜早春圖＞、＜窠石平遠圖＞、＜樹色平遠圖＞、＜幽谷圖＞，除了各有各的招牌畫法外，畫中的人物，多半為無名小卒，活動不多，有時根本不見人物，只靠亭台樓閣、小橋舟楫點綴於山水畫中，暗示人物的存在，全畫以山水草木為主，走上了寓意、抒情的道路。
像＜蕭翼賺蘭亭圖＞這樣有名的歷史故事畫，在巨然的筆下，居然完全不見刻劃個性鮮明的主角之間，所產生的戲劇性關係，只有點綴式的概念人物，在山水屋宇溪橋間，低調出場，人物之間的聯繫，簡單又鬆散，與畫中山石樹木連環緊湊的造型筆墨關係相比，實在不可同日而語。由此可見墨彩山水畫中，敘事故實告退，興懷之風漸起，抒情方滋，寓意流行。
北宋中後期的山水畫，大體上反映了宋儒「格物致知」的思想，把唐張璪的「外師造化，中得心源」，進一步深化為： 於外，超越師法自然之形，詳細探究自然之理，是為「格物」；於內，超越外在客觀的感受，進入內在主觀的抒發，是為「致知」。沈括在《夢溪筆談》中，更進一步指出，畫家甚至可以「造理入神」；蘇軾主張「江山如畫」，最能反映此一藝術應該獨立造化之上的美學趨勢。
南宋承繼北宋，在山水畫的「詩畫相發」上，多所探究，以邊角式或巴洛克式的構圖，發揮「以局部暗示整體，以有限象徵無限」詩歌特質，讓圖像記號系統的製作與創造，向文字記號系統的製作與創造傾斜，同時也間接反映了南宋偏安江南的政治現實。
元代墨彩山水畫，因「九儒、十丐」的社會等級區分，及慎密文網的牢籠，令文人儒士們的壓抑積鬱，在山水畫中勃發而出，畫家藉用「書法線條」的複雜運用，得到直抒胸中逸氣的出口，既可借外物之形而 「格物致感」，也可棄外物之形而「造理致感」。元人山水畫，在構圖上，綜合南北兩宋，或極簡之，或極繁之，或用「堆推法」中庸之；在筆墨運用上，一反成法，主張「先從淡墨起，可改可救，漸用濃墨者爲上」，導致「即興補訂對照修改式」的山水畫興起；在美學上，繪畫要有「古意」的觀念出現，遂使宋代江西詩派「無一字無來歷」的主張，在元畫中成為「無一筆無來歷」的濫觴，使繪畫創作，進一步向詩歌文章之創作法靠攏，開啟了影響深遠的「文人畫」傳統，反映了時代的苦悶、危機與希望。
明代墨彩山水畫，在綜合宋人丘壑與元人筆墨的原則下，一方面以導遊或旅遊紀念品式的《遊名山記》(都穆1458-1525)、《西湖遊覽志》(1547) 、《方氏墨譜》(1588) 、《程氏墨苑》(1606)、《三才圖繪》(1607)、《海內奇觀》(1610)、《天下名山勝概記》(1631)、《天下名山圖》(1633)反映了物質發達、旅遊興盛的「富裕社會」現象；一方面也以奇幻變形山水，反映了王守仁「心學」的浪漫主張，以及求奇求怪的美學風氣。到了明末清初，因為陽明心學大盛，黃山旅遊及繪畫隨之興起，西洋畫也在此時傳入，促成了畫史上第二個藝術風格爆發期的出現，正好即時反映了上述兩種需求的迫切。
清朝康乾嘉道時期，樸學大盛，考證之風興起，墨彩山水繪畫，多半在「古意」中討生活，不斷的與古代藝術大師，從事充滿文化歷史感的對話，成了許多畫家一致的創作目標。旅遊描繪黃山奇峰的高潮不再，題材形式求奇求怪之狂飆不再。反而是花鳥畫，有重大突破與發展，在「揚州八怪」的筆下，清奇瑰怪之作再現。
清末戰禍不斷，1840年中英鴉片戰爭之後，西潮東漸，革命軍興，科技發達，墨彩山水畫，不得不面對工業時代，產生巨變。中國墨彩畫史上，第三次藝術風格爆發期，在此一階段，應運而生，一直發展至今，已有一百七十多年的歷史，以爆發在1940年左右的二次世界大戰為分水嶺，可分為「戰前世代」與「戰後世代」。
戰前世代畫家，面對民族主義、民族國家與工業社會的興起，革命活動四處爆發，反傳統成為時尚，追求民主與厲行極權激烈對抗，結構主義思考模式風行，藝文現代主義當道，為藝術而藝術成為主流。
在時代如此快速變遷之下，有些畫家，以傳統墨彩山水畫為基礎，引進西洋水彩素描寫生、東洋膠彩素描寫生，形成畫派，是為一變。
有些畫家，受西洋現代主義、抽象畫派的啟發，同時也受到東洋畫「朦朧體」的影響，在墨彩山水畫中，發展出一種潑墨潑彩流動式的山水；或實驗出一種朦朧漂浮縱橫不定的戰亂山水，是為二變。
還有些畫家，深入墨彩山水的「古意」傳統，承先啟後，或以亂柴積墨積彩之法，創造深入山心的暗夜山水，墨色陳厚，光華燦爛；或以「童年經驗」與「古意」結合，開發出新文學式的浪漫山水，式為三變。
有些畫家則回歸「外師造化、中的心源」的傳統，以切割式或細點式的造型與筆法，或濃彩、或重墨，與親歷的山水經驗對話，經營出有如造山運動的進行式山水，是為四變。
更有畫家，直接使用西洋畫法，創造西洋式的作品，在西方藝術傳統中，或繼承，或變奏，或更新，同時以中國藝術元素為點綴，是為五變。
戰後世代的畫家，熬過東西冷戰的興衰，經歷並參與廣告消費社會的快速崛起，面對後工業社會及多元化、全球化社會的來到，見證後結構主義、解構主義、後現代主義先後茁壯盛行，全球化及地球村的概念迅速展開，體認環境及大氣汙染加劇，感受地球暖化及數位化互聯網到處蔓延。在這樣的成長及發展背景下，畫家們在思考方式、美學認知及創作方向，都有前所未有的體驗。
戰後世代畫家的普遍特質如下：在藝術主張上，大家普遍皆能超越「為藝術而藝術」及「為社會而藝術」的對立；對「歷史的終結」與「藝術史的終結」的說法，亦有基本的認識；對多元化商品社會運作方式的利弊，開始有了一定程度的了解；對不同文化之間的深層交流與對話，漸有進一步探討的興趣與初步的準備；對全球互連網的強大功能與無窮潛力，更是有深刻的體認與展望；對科技發展及全球化所帶來的諸多惡果，也有驚心的自覺與相當的警惕。
在這樣的基礎上，墨彩山水畫的發展，無可避免的，要誠懇面對、反映並處理上述諸多「當代」問題，畫家在美學態度上，在創作思考模式上，都必須提出新的策略與方法，讓理論與創作，相輔相成，完成戰後世代的基本藝術工作目標。
以我個人而言，面對當代社會及藝術的諸多問題，在美學上，我所採取的態度是「興之美學」的再出發；在創作思考模式上，我所使用的是繪畫「主題/補充評論」式的記號學方法。繪畫「主題/補充評論」的理論，源自於晚近中國語言學研究，認為中國語文是一種「主題/評論」式語文，其句法在「主題」確定以後，可以不斷的對此一「主題」做各式各樣的評論，而評論之間的關係，可以是「賦」(敘事/描形)，可以是「比」(比喻)，可以是「興」，主從次序一目了然，完全無須標點符號，上下文脈意義井然。
不過「主題/評論」的語文句法中之「敘事」與「比喻」，到了繪畫中，就必須轉變為以「興之美學」為主的「主題/補充評論」圖像句法。在繪畫中，一旦「主題圖像」確定，其他圖像必須以補充並列的方式，隨「主題圖像」並列展開，而「主題圖像」與「補充評論圖像」，都必須倚靠「筆墨」或「書法」來完成繪製。如此一來，書寫、文字、圖像，三者合而為一，可以同時傳達「言外之意」與「畫外之意」。
這也就是說，畫家可以運用「筆墨/書法/文字/圖像」，讓「主題圖像/文字」與「補充評論/文字」，呈現各式各樣的「興」之並列與對比，傳達「言外之意」與「畫外之意」。這樣的表現方式，如與互聯網上的多重「視窗」功能相對話，便能產生一種新型式的墨彩山水畫。
「視窗山水」可以同時並列，與現實山水相關畫面之正面、側面、空照面、解剖面、宏觀面、微觀面、時間面、理性面、非理性面、超現實面、科學面、神話面、政治面、農業面、工業面、後工業面、文化面、古畫面、現代畫面、….等等，無窮的面相，可以結合傳統自彩陶文樣、敦煌重彩、南北二宗至芥子園式的繪畫語言、當代創新的繪畫語言，以及各種國際通用的電子符號，使之相互平行對照、對比、反襯或補充，完成「言外之意」與「畫外之意」。
由於互聯網與手機通訊的發達，人類所有的食、衣、住、行經驗，都可以通過即時畫面的複製，無遠弗界的傳播，使各種相關又不相關，不相關又相關的高清彩色畫面，在電腦及手機中擁擠重疊成一堆，等待有義意的排比對照與解讀。「視窗山水」得創作，正好可以反映此一時代特徵，把中國傳統墨彩畫面、現代墨彩畫面、當代現實情境畫面，藉由書法筆墨的書寫、擴散與連接，統合起來，成為藝術整體，從上述各種與當代問題有觀的角度，抒發個人，反映時代。
Chinese ink-color landscape painting, incubated from the 3rd to the 4th centuries and hatched from the 7th to the 8th centuries, has been long regarded as the thermometer of the intellectual trends of its corresponding times and aesthetic attitudes of its coincident artists.
Between the fall of the Five dynasties and the rise of the Northern Sung dynasty, during the 10th century, the fully fledged Chinese ink-color painting has undergone the first phase of the aesthetic evolution and the explosion of style that witnessed the flourishing of monochrome ink landscapes by the eminent masters whose monumental works marked the most significant milestones not only in the art history of China but of the world.
Between the late Ming dynasty and the founding of the Qing dynasty, the second phase of the aesthetics transition and the burst of stylistic variation emerged along with the rise and popularization of the Neo-Confucian school of Mind initiated by Wang Yang-Ming (1472-1529) from the 16th to the 17th centuries. The emergence of a society of affluence with the vogue of national tourism witnessed the discovering, visiting, portraying and publishing famous landscapes or spectacular sceneries in and around China proper that have become fashionable endeavors for artists, publishers as well as intellectuals.
It has reached the third phase of its aesthetics adjustment and the eruption of style after the first Opium War (1839-1842) to the present day. Within a span of 170-year, wading through frustrated struggle and acute transformation, the world of ink-color landscape painting evolved from an agrarian idyllic world into a harsh industrial one, and the two World Wars (1914-1945) burst in the 20th century marked a watershed. Painters of the war generation, born before and during the World Wars, who were in most of the cases supporting the elusive freedom and unpredictable democracy by advocating and practicing the theory of “Art for art’s sake”, witnessed the rise of nationalism, revolutionism, anti-traditionalism, industrialism and modernism and consequently suffered from totalitarianism, fascism, communism as well as the all-pervasive commercialism.
Against the background of the downfall of an age-old imperialistic dynasty, the nationalist revolution, the civil wars among warlords and resistant campaign against foreign invasions, the war generation lunched their artistic projects, under the name of traditionalism, reformism, modernization, industrialization or Westernization, to offer their own interpretations, often of a structuralist one, of their version of modernity.
Some of them ventured to unite artistically Chinese tradition and that of the West with a Japanese touch. The others tried to rediscover the remote, peripheral and oblivious past for the sake of reinventing an indigenous present that was confused and imbued with endless social and political turmoil. Some vigorously utilized the best of past to probe into the core of the modern sensibility without recording superficially the concrete external reality, while some explored their childhood experiences with romantic orientations echoing the widespread and influential movements of new literature.
There were also drastic ones who almost gave up Chinese art tradition thoroughly by adopting Western oil painting tradition or following modernist trends of all kinds with Chinese or Japanese touches to achieve market success in the West as well as in the East.
Born after World War II, the artists of the postwar generation nurtured their arts during the Cold War (1947-1991), the Cultural Revolution (1949-1979) and culminated their artistic projects in the ensuing social-political milieus of postmodern pluralism. The contention of “art for art’s sake” and “art for socialism’s sake” was not a poignant issue anymore. Confronting the thriving cultural theories of all kinds such as post-structuralism, deconstructionism, “the end of history”, “the end of art” and “after the end of art”, the postwar artists have to brave the aftermaths of the Cold War, the Cultural Revolution and the overwhelming globalization with the impact of the prevailing internet condition and the violent clashes due to the practice of multiculturalism. In the same time, they also have to face the international problems like ecological restoration, global warming and even the impending problem of population aging.
The Chinese contemporary postmodern condition faced by the postwar painters is unique and complicated without precedent. In the first place, Chinese cultural-political situation has been divided into two laboratories after World War II. The one in mainland China is of a continental tyrannical communism orientation, while the other is of freedom and democratic orientation taking place outside of the China proper, chiefly in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and some major cosmopolitan cities around the world. The social milieu the painters have to live up to and deal with is of a strange and random collage combination of agricultural, industrial and postindustrial one which is like a broken mirror caught in a whirling vortex of kaleidoscopic changes accelerated by the prevailing internet technology.
The painters of the postwar generation, especially the landscape painters, are bound to tackle these head-on colliding contemporary issues with new aesthetic strategy and new mode of creative thought, since landscape painting has been always the dominant artistic vehicle to convey the spirit and essence of the oncoming new epoch.
Personally, I inclined to adopt the age-old aesthetic of Xing (興), or juxtaposed contingent improvisations, reinvented with new interpretations as my artistic standpoint in the creative process of my painting. In the same time, a cultural semiotics of Chinese graphic linguistic approach serves as a major guide line for me to explore the new possibilities and novel frontiers of our time.
Linguists have distinguished Chinese, a non-inflective language, as a topic-comment language from the topic-prominent languages, like Japanese, as well as from the subject-prominent languages, like English. Chinese verbal language allows the topic in a sentence to be followed by comments of rhapsodic narrative or fu賦, figurative speech or bi比, or just simple juxtaposition of imageries, or xing興. When it is applied in the practice of painting language, the most compatible “comment” of the topic of a graphic sentence will be juxtaposed graphic patterns as far as graphic signifier system goes.
“Topic-supplementary comment” painting theory, derived and modified from that of “topic-comment” of verbal language, enables the painter to employ ancient and modern pictorial and calligraphic idioms and quotations to construct synthetic graphic sentence patterns. Writing, composing and painted images merge into one which allows the artist not only to express “meaning beyond word” and “meaning beyond picture” but also to conduct “hyperspace communication” in art, constantly shaping dialogues not only with the past and present of Chinese culture but also with that of the West as well as other cultures.
Painting like this shares all the traits demonstrated by the recent internet technology, especially the internationally well received Microsoft Windows programs. “Windows Landscape series” or “Email@landscape.com series” enables the landscape artist to incorporate various views and perspectives of mountains and waters simultaneously in one composition and in the same time, juxtapositions of the imageries extracted and digested from the traditional heritages and the contemporary novelties, parallels of scenes seemingly related and yet not related, seemingly not connected yet connected, such as agrarian scenes and industrial ones, political and idyllic, urban construction and mythological Shangri-la… etc., could all be comfortably nestled against each other to reflect a world of multiple choices offered by the postmodern conditions and internet technologies.
Based on the traditional Chinese painting language codified, expanded and enriched after the first appearance of The Mustard Seed Painting Manual of the late 17th century, new graphic lexical patterns of the 20th century are created to join the old in order to facilitate grammatical contrasts and dramatic ambiguities through the calligraphic brush works thickening up and thinning out to form successive rhythmic tension. The Paralleled Imageries either in antithesis or in symmetry always acquire internal complexities in proportion to their external opacity or lucidity.
With the application of calligraphic strokes, the composition of the painting is constructed by segregated linear compartments whose formal features echoing the current Windows program, the most welcome computer operating system around the world. The pictorial scenes, poetic texts and electronic signs brushed to fill in the irregular linear compartments constitute multi-leveled linkages to each other and enable the painting to mean much more than what it says. Consequently the artistic method and aesthetic strategy employed and their compatibility with the subject matters in the painting reflect not only the spirit of the new century but also the aesthetic attitude of the artist in our time.
青，舟已過萬重山
羅青，一舟無聲對話展
Endless Mountains Begin with One Stroke:
Lo Ch’ing and Yi-Zhou, A Graphic Conversation
開幕：2014 年 11 月 1 日 16:00 p.m.
展期：2014/11/1-11/23
地點：上海莫干山路50號 3 棟 110
Smart Gallery
Memories of the South Spring Morning, 2013
台北 99’ 藝術中心 99 Art Center, Taipei
Time: 6月7日-29日 June 7-29, 2014
開幕酒會： 6月7 日 (星期六) 下午 3:00
Reception : 15:00 June 7th
畫廊地址：台北敦化南路一段259號5樓
Tel：02-2700-3099
Email：99dac@99dac.com
畫廊連結/Link to gallery：http://www.99dac.com/main/main.php
花似霧中看/羅青
中國花鳥畫，在唐以前，以裝飾祈福功能居多，到了五代南唐江南布衣徐熙，以「野逸」風格，表達個人意趣，方有了明顯的獨立個性。
「野逸」畫派的題材，經過北宋文同、蘇軾文人畫家的深化發揚，在「觀物之生」、「格物致知」的佛學、理學影響下，成了反映畫家人格、心境及經驗的象徵，文同的《斷竹》，東坡的《朱竹》及《古木竹石圖》，是墨彩畫中，最早象徵「現實與理想衝突」的悲劇性表現。到了南宋，在禪僧牧谿、玉澗的筆下，花鳥畫又成了禪道、禪悟的觀想「壇城」與頓悟契機。而宋末鄭所南思肖，畫蘭不畫土，把家國之痛，政治主張，融入花鳥畫，使此一畫種的內容，更形豐富。元代畫家倪瓚題所南畫蘭詩，便是佳證:
秋風蘭蕙化為茅，南國淒涼氣已消；
只有所南心不改，淚泉和墨寫離騷。
到了元代，趙孟頫、倪瓚、王淵、張中、王冕等畫家，綜合兩宋的花鳥發展，把花鳥畫帶入了抒情、寓道、裝飾祈福，三者合而為一的道路。明朝畫家繼承元人，在技法上，有更純熟的發展，孫隆、沈周、文徵明、唐伯虎、陳白陽、郭詡、林良、呂紀、李辰，皆能自創新境，墨彩交融，有如西洋水彩，到了徐文長、陳洪綬，受到晚明 「陽明心學」的影響，把極端個人的特質，以幾近「變形」的方式入畫，令人耳目一新。
明末清初的遺民畫家，如張風、八大、石濤、弘仁等，承繼元明的花鳥發展，再度在花鳥畫中，強調家國之思，暗示政治思想，沉鬱痛快，兼而有之，增加了花鳥畫的厚度與深度。其它如以高其佩為首的指畫派，革新花鳥畫的技術，開發花鳥畫的新內容、新風格；康乾時期，耶穌會教士如郎世寧，引西法入畫，創作了大量的花鳥畫，影響了中土畫家如沈銓等，在花鳥畫中，酌情加入明暗光影法，融入宮廷花鳥畫的傳統，影響亦十分深遠，直至近代。
接下來，揚州、京江、海上畫家，紛紛先後為花鳥畫開發出新題材、新構圖、新筆法、新畫法，並積極以篆隸草書，及西洋水彩法入畫，創造出新的知感性(sensibility)。此外，女性花鳥畫家大量增加，把刺繡因素，融入創作，為清代花鳥畫，帶來新的蓬勃生機。
民國以來，花鳥畫受西洋素描、水彩、油畫及東洋「朦朧體」的影響，在題材、構圖及畫法上，多所變革。以高劍父為首的「嶺南畫派」，推出撞水、撞粉的寫生畫法，風行一時。北方畫壇，以齊白石為首，以書法之筆，寫生之技，強烈對比之法，開發出紅花墨葉一派，影響廣大。另外齊白石、豐子愷等畫家，特別以「童年經驗」入畫，可謂空前，為花鳥畫注入新文學的浪漫天真內容，抓住了時代的脈搏。
如今，花鳥繪畫技法日趨變化擴大完備，而題材與命意，則仍有待開發。花瓶的材料已經解構，然插的花，樣式卻依然有限，急待超越季節，超越時空，向八荒宇宙發展。鳥籠的空間也已擴大；然養的禽鳥，種類卻不多，急需我們打開鳥籠，讓更多不同的飛鳥，入籠飲食、蒙養、展示。因此我想，除了在花鳥畫中，溫習並翻新、更新傳統題材之外，還可以通過後現代式的解構觀念或戲劇、默劇手法，在花鳥畫中，處理心理學、環保學、性學、現象學、魔法學…等議題，讓當代文化的種種素材，如女性主義、消費社會、能源再生…等等，吸引漫天自由自在的各色飛鳥，不時訪問藝術鳥籠，向大家展現最新的美姿，以無比的深度與廣度。
古典的迴響－羅青小品畫展
Time：2012 12/16－2013 1/6
Venue：上海德佳藝術空間
開幕酒會： 2012 12/16 （週日）下午 2:00-5:00
羅 青 墨彩 / 陶瓷畫展: 貓熊之歌
The Art of Lo Ch’ing: Songs of Panda
99’ 藝術中心 99 Art Center Taipei
Date: 2012 年 7 月 14 －29 日
Venue: 台北市敦化南路一段 259 號 5 樓
Tel: 2700-3099 Email: 99dac@99dac.com
開幕酒會: 7 月 14 日 (星期六) 下午 3:00
Reception: July 14, 3: 00 PM
貓熊：儒家君子新象徵
羅 青/文
繼1961年《世界自然基金會》以熊貓為會徽，
此後，熊貓標誌成了全世界廣受大人小孩歡迎的寵物意象，
事實上熊貓性屬孤獨宅男，一年只有在交配期間，才與雌性同居，
在中國古神話中，熊貓名為貔貅，是威猛勇士，也是反戰份子。《尚
在其他古籍中，熊貓展現出另一種特質。東方朔《神異經》說：「南方有獸，名曰齧鐵。」，指的就是熊貓。晉 郭璞注《爾雅·釋獸》提及熊貓，也說它：「似熊、小頭、痹腳、
「熊貓」 此一荒謬的現代名稱，顯示此物一進入二十世紀，
自古至今，除了象徵儒家聖王賢能的神龍之外，
時至二十一世紀的今日，該是讓熊貓加入吉祥瑞獸傳統的時候了，
熊貓的可愛形象，多半來自小熊貓，其中蘊含卡通式的輕鬆與幽默，
Panda, A Pensive Confucian Gentleman of our Times
By Lo Ch’ing
Following the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) employing the image of panda as its logo in the early 60s in order to awaken the awareness of conservation and the conscientiousness of environmental protection, Beijing began to send real pandas touring globally as Goodwill Ambassadors in the beginning of the 70s, consequently turning the endangered species into the icon of a friendlier China.
Welcomed and beloved by children and adults alike around the world, the image of panda has become very popular and sometimes excessively propagated as to be overused both politically and commercially to the point of skin-deep gaudiness, naïve shallowness blended with cheap clown like sweetness. Its true tragic role with contradictory mythological attributions as an extinguished wildlife animal has almost completely passed into oblivion.
The truth is that the male panda who will only take and keep a female company shortly during the mating season within a period of one month is rather of a type of gentle and lonely bachelor. It often lives quietly by the meandering brooks and saunters pensively among the bamboos, its regular diet, like a genuine gentleman recluse praised by Confucius, who regarded bamboo as the proper symbol of a decent upright personality staying fresh and green against bitter and hostile weathers even in the midst of heavy snow.
In ancient Chinese mythology, panda called by the name of Pi-xio (貔貅) was both a warrior and a pacifist. It often dashed with tiger, bear and elephant in the battle field to assist generals and soldiers to defeat the invading enemies. After the war was won, comfortably and nonchalantly would it retire into the mountains eating metals or weapons for a living. It was believed that his urinate could melt needles swallowed and stuck in the throat by accident. Panda, therefore, was also addressed as Zou-yu (騶虞), the animal of righteousness in the Book of History (史記). Warriors enjoyed wearing its skin to show bravery and its image was frequently painted on the flag used as a truce token.
The somewhat ridiculous modern Chinese name of panda, Xiong-mao (熊貓), literally meaning “Bear-cat” proves the poor creature was also a helpless victim of the abuse of modern media. In the 40s during the period of world War II, a stuffed panda was for the first time displayed to the public at the Museum of Chung-qing with a caption read Moa-xiong (貓熊 literally cat-bear) and it was misread by a young journalist who published its photo by labeling it with the following two characters Xiong-mao (熊貓). Soon, the wrong and confusing title had been widely circulated and accepted and people began to address the animal Xiong-mao regardless of its correct genuine scientific name. From then on, panda has suffered a dissociation of sensibility, its name deconstructed from its nature and its form no longer the echo of its content.
Besides the mythological dragon, the symbol of sage king and cultural saint, the horse, the mundane transformation of a dragon, the symbol of bravery and enterprise, has been the most popular model animal for artists ancient and modern to depict passionately and portray devotedly on stones, bronzes and murals to begin with and later on silk, satin and paper from the ancient time to the present. After Tang dynasty, new propitious animals were added into the graphic beneficial imagery repertoire, just to name a few as examples: the crane, brushed as symbol of congratulation and immortality, the peacock royalty and richness, the quails peace and harmony, the fishes abundance and surplus, the monkey high rank marquis, the sheep and the goat lucky and auspiciousness, the elephant washing ushering fresh vision with new hope, the butterfly and the cat longevity and seniority, the tiger austerity and dignity, the lions teacher-students continuity.
Now it is time to add panda into the time-honored list of auspicious model animals with new theme, significance and concept. While the adult panda could continue to play the traditional role of a musing Confucian gentleman or a meditating Buddhist Dharma, sophisticated, idealistic and tragic, it also could acquire new roles such as a conservationist, environmentalist and wildlife protector, exercising its duty as a social critic or political commentator to reflect fully and poignantly diverse contemporary cultural concerns and problems.
As for the cute little cubs, they could play their cartoon roles with lightheartedness and good humor entertaining the world of adult and kid at once without even knowing it. Especially when mother panda and its youngsters being together, a perfect loving family picture would and will have impressed into the hearts of countless viewers of the past, present and future.