Xiaoming Cheng
Preface
In recent years, through the appreciation of Fan Zhou painting and calligraphy, I have great admiration in my heart. In many conversations with him, I stressed that Fan Zhou’s light music painting and calligraphy works can have a healing effect. In my opinion, the curving brushstrokes and energy presented in Fan Zhou’s works have a deep impact on the viewer’s sense of happiness. Appreciating such works of art can calm the mind, calm the mood and relieve pressure.
Art is also important as a form of therapy. The characteristics of Fan Zhou light sound painting and calligraphy are to write the rhythm of the internal energy of nature. When we are immersed in the art world created by Fan Zhou, individuals can establish a connection with nature and use the natural energy to adjust their own energy.
In my opinion, Fan Zhou Guangyin painting and calligraphy works have a potential role in comprehensive medicine. If the soothing effect of Fan Zhou’s works is supplemented with traditional medical methods, it can also provide a special treatment environment for patients: When the audience resonates and resonates with Fan Zhou’s music and painting works, individuals can enter the artistic mood of Fan Zhou’s paintings and calligraphy, find solace in the energy presented by his works, and may improve their overall happiness.
Fan Zhou’s Creative Concept & Theory of “xu” and “shi” in Traditional Chinese Medicine
While most people only see the “likeness” (external appearance), they fail to perceive the internal transformation of yin and yang. However, through his own feelings, perception, resonance, and comprehension, Fan Zhou has proposed and put into practice the creative concept of “forgetting the self in the object, arising from causal conditions.” He has pioneered this new language of painting through the technique of interweaving curved lines. In his creations, Fan Zhou brings forth the invisible energy through his brushwork, reaching a highly elevated state of artistry.
In my book “Methodology of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Theory of Deficiency and Excess,” which I wrote in 2021, I specifically wrote about Fan Zhou’s unique approach. In his ink landscape paintings, he doesn’t depict the external appearance of mountains and rivers but rather the internal energy structure he perceives within them. Fan Zhou employs his innovative technique of interweaving curved lines to portray the rhythmic energy of mountains and water. Fan Zhou says, “The void is the substance, and the substance is the void. The void and the substance coexist, and the substance gives rise to the void, and vice versa.” This expresses the concept of creating something out of nothing, transforming substance into emptiness, and the interplay between substance and emptiness, yin and yang.
Fan Zhou’s Calligraphy and Painting & Self-Cultivation
I would like to discuss the relationship between appreciating Fan Zhou’s artworks and self-cultivation from a doctor’s perspective. Personally, when I look at his artworks, I experience three things: first, cultivating the mind; second, harmonizing with nature; and third, sensing the rhythmic flow.
We all know how a drop of water can preserve itself and never dry up-by merging itself into the ocean. Similarly, how can a person achieve health and longevity? It is by integrating their own energy into nature as much as possible. This is because all things in the world ultimately return to the same source. In reality, the universe and all things are composed of the same energy. Only by merging ones own energy with nature and becoming a part of the natural energy can one endure in the long run.
Therefore, I personally believe that Fan Zhou’s artworks are a medium for self-cultivation. When you create them, you engage in self-cultivation, and when viewers appreciate them, they can also cultivate themselves. In other words, the artworks can help viewers enter a state of tranquility and gain insights. At the same time, they enable viewers to subtly feel the interconnectedness between their own energy and the energy of nature, allowing them to enjoy the harmony between their own energy flow and the rhythm of nature.
When we appreciate Fan Zhou’s ink landscape paintings, we can feel the rhythm of nature-the rhythm of mountains, water, trees, and more. In my lectures both domestically and internationally, I often emphasize the importance of regularly cultivating ourselves in harmony with various “existences” in the universe and nature. Facing the mountains, we can cultivate the profound energy of mountains; facing the water, we can cultivate the graceful energy of water; facing the trees, we can cultivate the vitalizing energy of wood…
In Daoist practices, it is often said that for those with kidney deficiency, cultivating the essence of water energy can nourish the kidneys; for those with liver deficiency, being in the presence of plants and trees, absorbing their essence, can nourish the liver yin; for individuals with insufficient heart energy, who easily experience fatigue, anxiety, and restlessness, they need to absorb the energy of the sun, the energy of fire, to nourish the heart; for those with lung deficiency, who frequently cough, suffer from asthma, and have insufficient breath, they need to face the moon and absorb the yin energy, cultivating the energy of Tai Yin to nourish the lungs; for those with spleen deficiency, who experience rebellious stomach qi, shallow temperament, and poor digestion, they need to cultivate the earth energy in the embrace of the earth.
In the artworks created by Fan Zhou, there is the rhythm of mountains, the rhythm of water, and the rhythm of nature. The interplay of these energies helps our bodies merge with various energies. For individuals with different ailments and deficiencies in the five visceral organs and five elements, when they see and sense the integration of energies in Fan Zhou’s artworks, through the generation, control, and interaction of the five elements, they can achieve a more balanced energy state. This assists them in leading a tranquil and harmonious life in their personal and professional endeavors
The introduction of author:
Professor Cheng Xiaoming, a Chinese medicine physician at the Institute of Integrative Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Executive Associate Editor of New England Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Visiting Professor of Zhejiang Chinese Medicine University, special expert of Shanghai Fudan Medical College and Huashan Hospital, holographic life system integration expert, has been engaged in Chinese medicine teaching, research and clinical work for 45 years at home and abroad.
He is the author of the English version of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Clinical Desk Reference and the Chinese version of Ten Lectures on TCM Methodology.
