Preface to 

A Deep Description of Natural Spirit  

Wu Liyang

There dwells a quiet purity within any enormous complexity. The quiet, independent thinking appears on a lively occasion. This is the comprehensive impression given to readers by Soaring Mind. 

Between the author and nature, there is a natural affinity, which is the fate infused in his blood, the affection absorbed in his poems, and a home close to the ancient style.

The author has the multiple identities of poet, connoisseur, and essayist, but in his treatment of nature, no matter what kind of literary form he uses, the potential beauty of nature is deeply infused in his work. 

A person belongs to space as well as to time. Actually, like plants, people are influenced by their geographic environments, and their reactions to all kinds of sounds are very different, and such differences can be analyzed in depth. In Commentary on the Waterways•River Water, preeminent talents and great men are always regarded to be from a land of picturesque scenery. Mr. Feng Chun's treatment of his southern landscape homeland is consistent with the conclusion of The Commentary on the Waterways.  

In the writer’s decades of life experiences, how strong is his inner feeling from returning home on snowy nights! His work is quite philosophical. Saddened by his aspiration, a reader never fails to shed a tear and wants to know what kind of person Feng Chun is; he will then feel as deeply, as Jia Yi did. As far as the writing style and method are concerned, brother Feng's essays, like the modern Jingling school (a literary school of the late Ming Dynasty), are inflexible; he does not begin to write if he has nothing true on his mind. With much empathy for the world, he often writes at a lofty level, blending realities with mystery and spirit. His language, while concise, is deeply meaningful, and his essays exhibit his wisdom. In his essays, there is not only the breaking willow branches next to a roadside pavilion to give to a departing friend, but also a generous spirit like Jing Ke's, bidding farewell to the prince of Yan. Feng’s work shows intermittent beauty and something fresh. The language in his essays is naturally fluent, lucid, lively, and unique; his work has rid itself of old writing patterns and restrictions. The Reason of Returning to the Homeland reveals thousands of implications, describing not merely the home landscape and pastoral life, but also the expression of philosophical thought. Many writers have described the views of mangroves, Bawang Mountain, and other scenery; however, brother Feng has chosen to reveal the profound implication in each brushstroke of his detailing of those scenes.

One's homeland is a microcosm of the Chinese landscape. Brother Feng, immersed in the spiritual world of mountains and rivers, is on the bright pearl island of the south, but his mind often flies to the vast land of China so that one learns that Feng flies to the far northeast, drives along the Tibet Plateau, and flies again to the center of Central Plains. The mood of chivalrous persons and literati is depicted ecstatically at the same time in his essays, and his descriptions keeps a certain internal relationship with the social reality. As a work of art, Feng's depiction plays the role of a licorice in a bowl of bitter medicine. Historical fact, in his depiction, has been long gone, but the true affection is preserved. This art of living, based on poetry and winebibbing, had actually been cultivated by the ancients. Preface for Spring Feast in the Peach-and-Plum Garden, by Li Bai, based on a deep emotional reaction to the swift passage of time and the dream-like qualities of life, highlights the effect of poetry and wine on life. The night seems like a dream in spring; people drink together around the flowers under the moonlight, sharing 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.” We see that these verses increase  the intoxication of life in a sufficiently cultural sense. Therefore, whether it is Wuzhen surrounded by glittering ripples, or the travel notes of the ancient Miao Village, or the charming site of Jinbian Creek, in Feng’s description, the romantic charm and beauty not only conform to the author's brushwork, but also make the landscape and mood blend together, and his description is more in line with his philosophical thought.

Listen to the Fountain at Nanshan Mountain, with the wonder of drifting clouds and flowing water, seems to present an activity which everyone can do, but unexpectedly, the readers cannot stop reading, and in the meantime their emotions are infected by his description. As a sensitive poet, Feng is more sensitive than others, so his essay, “The Lyric of Shimei Bay”, is refreshing and enjoyable. Fashion and humor often bring people almost the same happiness, but the real, everlasting spiritual enjoyment is often rooted in the faint and unknown corner of one’s own mind.

Different social phenomena are portrayed in one part of Feng's book, and there are various descriptions of mixed and complex emotions in it. Pressure from one's spirit sometimes becomes a kind of inspiration and motivation for literature and art. Oysters can create pearls when they are irritated; people who are physically and emotionally uncomfortable often brew spiritual wine, which makes them wonder and ponder, and also provides them strength. Modern people are the most pitiable; in the present era, the influence of business oligopoly has grown substantially; consumerism is becoming increasingly fiercer day by day; the pipeline of information software is growing more and more like a creeping vine; CEOs of big business are involving themselves with art in an insulting way. Forests are dwindling; lands are barren, and media appears everywhere. Even if you are regretful to see a small boat moving away, you are not able to stop it from departing. Hence, Feng Chun sighs that we must not be the "fascists in everyone's heart" to depict today’s great masters; we don't have to worship power, extol authority, and praise celebrities with hifalutin words, nor force others to accept our own views. 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, hazy, and paradoxical!  

Reading and appreciating paintings is the normal life of the author; it is also a long-term spiritual sustenance for him. Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge, because knowledge is limited, but imagination is infinite." Our lives are complicated, but with multidimensional thinking, we can wake immediately and understand much. 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 the connotation of eternal beauty. The sense of pressure and absurdity for 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 damaged, but it may as well be reposed in such works as Soaring Mind, which contains a crystalline and 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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