Preface                   

Deep Expression of Natural Spirit

--Testimonials After Reading Feng Chun’s Collection

Wu Liyang

There exists a quite purity in the vast and complex, and elegant dances contain real loving care. It is full of poetic sadness in the free and easy; the quietly independent thinking appears in a lively occasion...This is the comprehensive impression given to readers by Soaring Mind , a new book by Feng Chun...

Between the author and nature there’s a natural affinity, which is the fate infused in his blood, the affection soaked in a poetic dwelling, and the home close to the ancient tune.

The author has the multiple identities of poet, connoisseur, and essayist, but in his treatment to nature, no matter what kind of literary form he uses, the potential sound of nature has been deeply buried in his works.  

A man belongs to space as well as time. Actually, people, like plants, are quite influenced by their geographic environments; their feelings of all sounds are very different, and such differences can be seen in depth. In Commentary on the Waterways Classic•River Water, preeminently talented persons and great men were always regarded to come from a land of picturesque scenery. Mr. Feng Chun's treatment of the southern landscape homeland is consistent with the conclusion of the Commentary on the Waterways Classic.  

How much of the heart taste of returning home at night in the author's decades of life experiences? His writing is quite philosophical in sentiment. Saddened by his aspiration, you never fails to shed tears and want to know what kind of person he is, and you will have the feeling extruding out from your innermost being all the way like what Jia Yi did. As far as the style of grammar concerned, brother Feng's articles, like the modern Jingling school (a literary school in late Ming Dynasty), are not rigid; he does not begin to write if he has nothing true from his mind. With much sorrow for the world, he often writes at a high level, blending realities with mystery and spirit; his language is concise but with deep meaning, so his writing is the text of wisdom. In his articles, there is not only a sense of breaking down willow branches next to a roadside pavilion to send a friend and see him off, but also a generous spirit like Jing Ke bidding farewell to the prince of Yan. As for his writing, it is terse and lucid; ups and downs; peculiar and influential; it shows the wonderful of off-and-on, containing writing freedom in his spirit all the way, and it has created a new path in literature; there is no hotbed in his writing for the old writing type. The Reason of Returning Homeland, which implies thousands of subaudition, is not merely the home landscape and a pastoral photo, but the expression of philosophical emotions. Many writers have described the views of mangroves, Bawang Mountain, and other scenery, while brother Feng has deliberated to reveal the propound implication in each brushwork in his writing of those scenery.

Homeland is a microcosm of Chinese landscape. Brother Feng, immersed in the spiritual world of mountains and rivers, is on the bright pearl island of the south, but his heart often flies to the vast land of China so that I often hear from him flying to the far northeast, and hear that he drives on Tibet Plateau, and that he flies to the center of Central Plains...The mood of chivalrous persons and literati was depicted mistily and ecstatically at the same time in his writing, which also keeps a certain internal relationship with pragmatism. His essay is a work of art, playing a role of licorice in a bowl of bitter medicine, and history, in his essays, has long been gone, but the truth is reserved a lot. This art of living, based on poetry and wine, has actually been cultivated by the ancients. Preface for Spring Feast in the Peach-and-Plum Garden by Li Bai, based on a deep sigh with emotions for the speed of time and floating life like a dream, promotes the effect of poetry, wine, and literature on life. The night seems like a dream in spring; people drink together around the flowers under the moonlight, talking about their exquisite feelings. “Lay out a fine feast and enjoy the flowers around; pass goblets quickly and we’re drunk in the moonlight.” “The mild spring attracts me with great view, and nature shows me the fine scene new.” You may see that these verses can increase the density of life in a sufficiently cultural sense. Therefore, whether it is Wuzhen surrounded in glittering ripples or the wild travel notes of the ancient Miao Village, or the charming side of Jinbian Creek...The romantic charm and sense of beauty are not only consistent with the author's brushstrokes, but also make the landscape and mood blend together, and they are more in line with the philosophical sentiments and thoughts.

Listen to the Fountain at Nanshan Mountain, with the wonder of drifting clouds and flowing water moistening and dying paper, seems to be an ordinary thing which everyone can do, but unexpectedly, the readers under Feng’s pen can not stop reading, and in the meanwhile their mood is wreathed by the description. As a sensitive person, Feng is more impressible than others, so his essay, The Llyric of Shimei Bay, is undoubtedly more enjoyable for the spirit. Fashion, jollification, and trend often bring people almost the same amount of happiness, but the really more everlasting spiritual enjoyment is often rooted in the faint and unknown corner of one’s mind.

One part of the book portrays the social state, being full of mixed and complex emotions, and in which the pressure from spiritual aspect is sometimes a kind of inspiration and motivation for literature and art. Mussels become pearls when they are sick--people who are physically and emotionally uncomfortable often brew spiritual wine, which makes them ponder, and this still forms a tension in terms of the positive rebound of the situation. Modern people are the most pitiful people. In the present era, the influence of business oligopoly has grown infinitely; consume prosperity, in human society, is becoming increasingly fierce day by day; the pipeline of information software is growing more and more like a creeping vine; big bosses of business are messing around with arts. Forests are dwindling; lands are starving, and media appears everywhere. Even if you cherish the memory of a small boat which is disappearing from now on, you are just strong in will but weak in power. Hence, the author sighs with regret that we must not be the "fascists in everyone's heart" or delineate the immediate great masters and the ones in our mind as well as the fleeting nuances, which leave people with sublime words containing deep meaning. What a pair of keen eyes to discover such absurd tricks of the world! Perhaps, everything, just like The Sense of Poetry, is so real and misty, hazy and paradoxical!

Reading and appreciating paintings is a normal life of the author; it is also a long-term spiritual sustenance. Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge, because knowledge is limited, but imagination is infinite." Things are complicated, but with multi-dimensional thinking, you can wake up immediately and have a clear expression. Today we are artificially separated from nature. We can neither hear the sound of wind nor see the brilliance of stars or feel the warmth of the earth; we will lose some of the most precious things, which are the most primitive passion of life and the infinite imagination and creativity rooted in nature after being integrated with nature. Therefore, the preference value created by the ancients in literature and art is becoming more and more mellow with age and freshness, and it has eternal beauty connotation. The sense of extrusion and absurdity for the modernist art and literature is much more dense and heavy than that of the ancients, and there is also a reason that the imagination provided by space has been obstructed and cut off. Today, people's spatial imagination has been thwarted, but it may as well be reposed in such artistic work as Soaring Mind, which contains a crystallized immortal "second natural space".

                    Translated by Zhang Jingqun

冯椿简介：

笔名：木耶。网名：鸟山林。海南省作家协会理事。第五、六届海口市作家协会副主席、常务副主席；海口市德艺双馨文艺家。海南诗社副社长，《海南诗文学》副主编。海南省“双宋”文化研究会监事长。文昌市文化研究会副秘书长。

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