By Guo Lyugang

A Strokeless Panting

By Guo Lyugang

Xu Beihong (1895-1953, Chinese painter) treated people with kindness and magnanimity, and never put on airs with anyone, be it friends, colleagues, or students. One day, Xu Beihong and his student Huang Chunyao were discussing matters related to artistic creativity. By and by their conversation became a frenzy of liveliness and mirth. Suddenly, Professor Xu stopped and proposed an idea to his student, “I have an idea; whichever subject I bring up, you have to paint it. How about it?”

“Fine, I agree. Please propose a topic, Professor.” Replied Huang Chunyao.

“The subject is quite elementary,”Xu Beihong said tepidly, “Draw a hunter carrying a hunting rifle on his back with his hunting dog following him trekking up into a high mountain. However, there is one condition: the picture has to be finished in only three brush strokes. Do you think you can do it?”

Hung Chunyao stewed over the question for a bit, then replied with a respectful smile, “The professor’s rules are so stringent, would it be possible to give me an example?’

Xu Beihong said nothing more, and immediately put brush to canvass. The first stroke was a jagged line that indicated the mountain peaks. The second stroke was a straight line, short and thick that indicated the rifle and its barrel exposed as the hunter went up the mountain. The third stroke was a bold line soaking that page in black pigment that curved upward, then curled over, indicating the canine’s tail as it trekked into the mountains with the hunter.

Staring at work sketched in big, bold, expressive lines, Huang Chunyao couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with respect and admiration for the professor’s wealth of imagination and minimalist vision. Yet at the same time he immediately came back with a small “counterstrike” in the form of a witty retort, “Professor, pardon my presumptuousness, if I may be so bold as to venture a challenge of my own, I’m not certain how the Professor would feel about that?”

Xu Beihong said with a bellowing guffaw, “One good turn deserves another. How could I not consent? What shall be the subject of my painting? Please come out with it at once.”

At first glance, Huang Chunyao’s proposition was not complicated in the least, “Paint a picture of a hunter exorcising demons in the forest on the eve of the lunar New Year.”

Xu Beihong was taken aback at first, then inquired curiously, “How many strokes shall I use?”

From out of the clear blue, Huang Chunyao replied, “Please forgive me Professor, I suggest you not use a single stroke.”

Surprised and bewildered, Xu Beihong asked in reply, “Not a single stroke? Then please, how should I go about painting it? Please do tell, I’d like to hear, by what means shall I paint such a picture?”

Huang Chunyao retorted with a chortle, “Just overturn the inkwell, let the ink spill over the page until there is a pool of black ink, fold over the paper and press the ink all over the rest of the white space is all covered in black. Is this not exorcising the demons on the eve of Spring Festival, all is pitch black, and you cannot see a thing?

Xu Beihong split his sides with laughter. Once the laughter stopped he gave Huang Chuanyao a pat on the shoulder and said, “Well, aren’t you just the mischievous young rascal?”

(FromAgeless Education, October 2016. Translation: Chase Coulson)